- Michael Crawford
- Gloria Gaynor
- KISS
- Sylvester Stallone
- George Strait
I’ll say this: it could have been worse. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great, but the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees, announced today in a typically rambling press conference by the Center’s chairman, our current President of the United States, really could have been worse.
Yes, one would think Trump would have better—and certainly more pressing—things to do than oversee a performing arts institution, but I guess now that the Rose Garden is paved over, he had time on his hands?
The list didn’t include the names of Kid Rock or Ted Nugent, so we can be grateful for those small mercies. But of the five honorees, I would argue only one deserves the honor. A case could be made for maybe a couple others, but taken as a whole, this year’s class of Kennedy Center inductees is, at best, underwhelming.
The first question people will probably have is, “Who’s Michael Crawford?” I have been in show business for over thirty years and, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know. (Sorry to this man.) That’s not a knock on Michael Crawford, by the way—I’m not trying to disrespect him or any of the other winners. I’m sure there’s lots of deserving artists whose names I don’t know!
I’m just making the point that when past acting honorees include names like Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Sally Field and Cicely Tyson, it’s hard to get too excited about a guy whose Wikipedia page basically begins, “Crawford is best known for playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em,” a British show that has never aired in the United States.
Crawford’s prominence in this country stems primarily from his creating the character of The Phantom in the musical Phantom of the Opera. I mean… sure? But if you want to honor a Broadway star, which I think is great, why not somebody whose name people at least recognize. Nathan Lane, maybe? Or Audra McDonald. If you want a white Christian, how about Kristin Chenoweth? OK, well I’ll tell you why not: because all of those people would have turned him down flat.
Which is the theme of this year’s list, as it will be the theme for the rest of our burger king’s second administration. This a list not of the most deserving but only of those who would say yes to being associated with this man and his regime.
I have absolutely nothing against Gloria Gaynor, but the 81-year-old singer has had exactly one hit song. Yes, it’s a doozy—”I Will Survive” is the anthem that fueled countless coked-up nights at Studio 54. But it’s one hit song! If you’ve ever watched the Honors on television, you know that the way it usually works is with other artists paying tribute by performing covers of the honorees’ biggest hits. What are they going to do for poor Gloria? Sing the same song in different keys? Will somebody be like, “And now here’s the calypso version?”
An argument could be made for KISS. The hard rock outfit in their famous hard rock outfits have endured for half a century as one of the most iconic, if not critically celebrated, American musical acts. Often derided for their cheesy make-up and over-the-top stage shows, KISS has been a singular act, uniquely American in both their sound and their appetite for hocking officially licensed merchandise: You can get KISS bed sheets, KISS illuminated figurines and, of course, the famous 70’s KISS lunchbox. Their cultural influence outweighs their musical influence.
And to bring it full circle, they once starred in the 1978 film KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park whose TV Guide description reads, “One the eve of a concert, KISS is kidnapped by an army of robots led by a vengeful scientist.” That phantom was not portrayed by Michael Crawford, but here’s to a sequel.
An argument could also be made for Sylvester Stallone, whose best-known films are legitimate staples of the American cinematic canon. Rocky is one of the greatest films ever made, full stop. First Blood is also a classic. The argument against Stallone would be that those two films, while amazing, suffer from the movies that followed in their respective franchises. What began as stories of down-on-their-heels losers beating the odds evolved into cartoonish spectacles. Stallone has had a long string of terrible gigs, including the abysmal Expendables series, which I’ve always interpreted as a not-too-subtle jab at Hollywood for not giving he and his coterie of ‘roided up 90’s action stars the respect he obviously feels they deserve. And maybe he’s right.
Of course, my favorite Stallone role will always be nothing more than the infamous rumor of him instructing a production assistant to “cradle the balls” and “stroke the shaft” during an on-set hot mic hookup. The incident has never been verified, but has nonetheless become the stuff of Hollywood legend.
I will note that Stallone is also an outspoken Trump supporter.
Finally, there’s George Strait, the country singer whose baritone croon features on sixty number one country hits. He’s sold over 120,000,000 albums worldwide. He’s been nominated for 16 Grammy awards. If anybody deserves to be recognized for a lifetime of greatness, it’s George Strait. Now here, I know nothing about the man or his politics and, honestly, I don’t want to? I just want to celebrate that a deserving American is getting the recognition he deserves. Country music has often been overlooked by the hoity-toity cultural elite, and it’ll be great to see artists honor the man known as “The King of Country.”
(Not that I’ll be tuning in, of course, because Trump is also hosting the damned show, which will obviously make it unwatchable.)
It’s naïve to think that politics haven’t played a role in the Kennedy Center Honors before this year. I’d be an idiot to claim that the past inclusion of Democratic luminaries like George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen or Oprah Winfrey wasn’t, in some way, payback for their support.
The difference between those recipients and this year’s (with the exception of Strait) is that Clooney, Springsteen and Winfrey each unequivocally deserved it. I hope this year’s honorees have a fantastic evening come December, but I imagine even they probably shared the same thought as I did upon seeing their names announced: Really?
The post Opinion: Trump’s Kennedy Center Honors Picks Are a Real Who’s Who appeared first on The Daily Beast.
