‘Kennedy Center Honors’ review: U2, George Clooney, Amy Grant Saluted

Broadcast television is enough of the no-go around the holidays that some old school shows celebrating the arts have managed to sneak in, providing a spectacle of very classy people donning their tuxedos for the benefit of those of us who haven’t. We got out of our pajamas in two days. On the heels of Paul Simon’s excellent pre-Christmas special last week, CBS is back Wednesday night with the “45th Annual Tribute to the Kennedy Center,” offering a beautiful illusion of D.C. as a functional city populated by rock musicians, gospel singers, and mizos. Sopranos can make it across the aisle, just like their political counterparts, and we truly are a civilized nation united by, among many other things, our common appreciation for the arts. Just don’t leave the news afterwards to break the spell.

On December 2nd in a row, we live in a country where a sitting president can actually show his face at an arts-based ceremony–and in a country where a vice president knows the words, and can speak with them, “Midnight Train to Georgia”–that is anything but fancy. case. Biden and Harris are on the show honoring U2, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, composer and conductor Tanya Lyonne, and George Clooney, and the fact that the top four of those five are musicians this year offers some natural advantages to putting on show music, in terms of cover song opportunities. to all stars. (Clooney even sings a musical number as part of his tribute, though Diane Reeves pops in to serenade the actor and director with “How High the Moon,” the standard she sang in his “Good Night, and Good Luck” 17 years ago.)

U2 seems like the most underprivileged of the honorees launching the musical tribute, though that’s not entirely the producers’ fault. As indicated, Mary J. Blige was supposed to sing one song, which she famously performed with the group for a 2005 feature and a subsequent song, but she fell ill, so Eddie Vedder was assigned to cover that in addition to his slated movie called Elevation. You could do worse than having Pearl Jam be the one pressed into an emergency double duty in representing the U2 catalogue, though it’s so easy to represent something transformative, the way Blige’s selection once did. Things get even more interesting with Brandi Carlisle, Hozier, and Ukrainian singer Jamala join in a three-way split for “Walk On.” It’s the kind of sweetly symbolic touch that, as much as you’d expect Carlisle to be tasked with delivering the powerful notes, he’s the representative of the embattled nation, Jamala, whose tune is her greatest show. But Getting the end credits to roll over the back end of the song is kind of a step on the climax.

Alongside the serious rhetoric from Sean Penn, U2 also deserves a not-so-serious one from Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, reading a fake message from the Kazakh president “translated to mean, ‘Please remove your miserable album from your new iPhone 6,'” referring to the “hard choice”. Who Facing Our Planet: With or Without Jews.” A little irreverence (and a well-deserved bit of shame) goes a long way on a show like this, even if the jokes might read more funny on the page than they appear in the buttoned-up atmosphere. Kudos, anyway Alright, to CBS for holding on to all things anti-Semitic (even if they were probably going to take hell after Cohen’s routine was so widely reported).

Amy Grant gets a very comprehensive musical tribute, which begins with Sheryl Crow testifying to her secular side with “Baby Baby” and ends with Michael W. Smith, BeBe, CeCe Winans, and a chorus bringing it back to her. right Now! This is what I call worship music Beginnings with a mix of church staples “El Shaddai” and “Sing Your Praise to the Lord”. What comes next is the highlight of the two hours’ music: The Highwomen (the supergroup consisting of Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby) take turns on lead vocals and give a full four-part harmony to “Somewhere Down the Road,” Grant’s 1997 song about mysteries. the yard. It’s a comforting song about the disturbing existential notion that we don’t know Jack – beyond the veil – something at least some secularists and Christians would probably agree on – and it would certainly be nice to have a Highwomen version available for download. .

George Clooney looks, frankly, like the kind of guy the Kennedy Center Honors was invented for — he looks like he was born in a tux; He is a nimble target for Matt Damon’s jokes. And he has a famous socialite who suggests he could probably tell his limo driver the best shortcut through Washington — and the show doesn’t disappoint. Julia Roberts kicks off the prologue with an already well-photographed Clooney-print dress, Richard Kind elevates him as a Hollywood figure representing the “liberal good inherent in humanity,” and Damon celebrates him as “a man who spent time pooping in Richard’s Kind’s Kitty Box, for example.” banter.”

Clooney himself appears in footage of the tape handover ceremony at the State Department and is seen hitting Damon by saying, “I’ve been lucky enough to meet millions of people, and they all agree without exception: ‘You suck at Batman. ‘” ”

These clips from the actual honorees point to one inherent flaw in the “Kennedy Center” system: The audience wants to see them sing as well, or at least speak, in Clooney’s case. After years out of the way, it was great to see U2 together performing for number one, especially alongside another artist (imagine the Bono/Brandi possibilities!). It’s part of what makes this night unlike any other, the KCH torch-keepers certainly believe – that those celebrated are having fun, looking fabulous in their balcony seats, and not being nervous about their performing duties. But it certainly seems reasonable at this late date to at least consider realigning the format to allow for speeches of honor, if not songs, especially when pithy characters like Bono and Clooney are reduced to a series of reaction shots.

However, this year’s show is never less warm than a cozy bathroom, with an irreplaceable roster of award-winners and cast of guests – and with the accomplished Ricky Minor as musical director who can cater to all styles of music represented where they’re on the air. Straight, from classic rock to some aptly sounding rock.

Presenter LL Cool J says of Knight, “I once heard Gladys Knight sing the ABCs, and I thought I was in church. True story.” That’s a hard legacy to live up to, but to the extent that Wesley Morris is quoted as saying she “each made our points,” there’s a wealth of suitable talent on hand to back it up, from Garth Brooks noting the country origin from “Midnight Train to Georgia” For her friend of six decades, Patti Labelle, she led the group’s “That’s What Friends Are For” vocal. Mickey Guyton proves to be a terrific choice to carry the torch forward with “You’re the Best Thing That Happened to Me,” and Ariana DeBose, with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” further establishes — furthermore, “SNL gig no one forgets — that there’s actually no Awards or a variety show that you shouldn’t book for if her calendar is open.

Tanya Lyonne is one of the five who probably won’t be considered a household name in most American homes, but here’s where the show is about artistic as well as social justice, with a major network providing high-quality airtime for artists like classical pianist Chloe Flower, performing “Tumbao” with stage Dancer for Dancers in Harlem. This kind of performance is something we won’t see on a Grammy again, that’s for sure. So here’s to The Kennedy Center Honors as one of the last places Anna Devere Smith is likely to suddenly appear in our living rooms and make us feel like we should be wearing something more formal than our Santa PJs.