E16 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022
Temptations” was a rare Eisen-
hower Theater tryout in the Rut-
ter era. Original theater pro-
gramming has been focused
chiefly on shows for young
adults.
Nothing on the Kennedy Cen-
ter’s musical-theater roster has
occurred even in the revival cat-
egory to rival its productions of
“Ragtime” (2009) and “Follies”
(2011), both of which transferred
to Broadway for modest engage-
ments. And there has certainly
been nothing on the scale of the
Sondheim Celebration or even,
for that matter, the 2008 offering
of August Wilson’s 10-play 20th-
century cycle.
The Kennedy Center’s mission
statement says that one of its
three pillars is “presenting, pro-
ducing, and curating world-class
art.” In theater, it’s relying these
days far more on curating. I’ve
asked the genial Finn on several
occasions whether the arts center
might originate more work. “It’s a
goal of mine. It’s something that I
always want to do,” he told me
last month, adding that the time
needed for the technical aspects
of a new production, in the cen-
ter’s limited and in-demand spac-
es, is hard to come by.
That seems sometimes to sty-
mie the “producing” aspect of its
mission. Although Lincoln Cen-
ter for the Performing Arts in
New York traditionally has per-
formed a broader creative role
than the Kennedy Center, that
complex contains many more
performance spaces. Lincoln
Center Theater, one of the con-
stituent companies, just complet-
ed a presentation of an original
(if flawed) musical, “Flying Over
Sunset,” in its Vivian Beaumont
Theater. In its second space, the
Mitzi Newhouse, an original op-
era, “Intimate Apparel” by Ricky
Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage, is
having its world premiere.
Still, “50 Years of Broadway at
the Kennedy Center” had me
nostalgic for the days when ambi-
tious new theater was on the arts
center’s agenda. So why can’t
those concerts serve as a new
source of inspiration?
Of course, two-nights-only
doesn’t amount to a major com-
mitment, but the assembled tal-
ent suggested the actors’ under-
standing of what Kennedy Center
exposure can mean. The results
were often thrilling: LaChanze
with “Waiting for Life to Begin”
from “Once on This Island”;
Stephanie J. Block belting “Don’t
Rain on My Parade” from “Funny
Girl” and “Defying Gravity” from
“Wicked”; Tony Yazbeck tapping
to the Gershwins’ “I Can’t Be
Bothered Now” from “Crazy for
You”; Beth Leavel offering a rous-
ing “Some People” from “Gypsy”;
Gavin Creel singing “Pippin’s”
“Corner of the Sky”; Betsy Wolfe
and Rannells with “Suddenly
Seymour” from “Little Shop of
Horrors.” It went on and on.
Anyone who was in the Opera
House last weekend knows what
I mean when I say: You should
have been there. They are words I
long to write once again — about
something theatrical at the Ken-
nedy Center that no one has ever
seen.ed disappointments for the per-
forming arts, the two sold-out
nights of “50 Years of Broadway
at the Kennedy Center” were
engineered for uplift — and a
reminder of the role the nation’s
arts center has played as an
amplifier for musical theater. The
audience’s roaring reception ear-
lier this month signaled the belief
that we’ve collectively earned
this evening of melodic pats on
the back.
But the jogging of memories of
all that has transpired in the arts
palace on the Potomac River
nudged me in a more pensive
direction: What, if anything, is
the Kennedy Center doing to
create more such memories? The
exciting acts of “50 Years of
Broadway,” directed by Marc Bru-
ni, were a joyful paean to the past,
and to the signature events of
American musical theater in
which the institution has figured.
Where, one wonders, are those
kind of ambitions now?
As emcee James Monroe Igle-
hart explained, three musicals
featured in the show, “Pippin,”
“Annie” and “Les Misérables,”
hold special significance to
Washington: They all tried out at
the Kennedy Center before mak-
ing their triumphant Broadway
debuts. A special tribute was
included on this pair of evenings,
too, to Stephen Sondheim, taking
note of his recent death and
honoring his own deep ties to the
institution. The center’s six-mu-
sical Sondheim Celebration in
2002 is widely regarded as a
watershed in the centering of
Sondheim’s work in American
culture. It shouldn’t be forgotten,
either, that the arts center was a
producer in 2003 of Sondheim
and John Weidman’s “Bounce,”
which later became “Road Show,”
the last Sondheim musical to
debut during his lifetime.
All these events occurred be-
fore Deborah F. Rutter assumed
the Kennedy Center presidency
in September 2014. Many of the
productions took place during
the tenures of Roger L. Stevens,
the arts center’s founding chair-
man, and Michael M. Kaiser,
Rutter’s predecessor. (Mr. Ste-
vens, as he was respectfully
known, did not even merit a
mention during the celebratory
anthology show). Over the past 7^12
years, the center has become ever
more predictably a high-end road
house, its theater bookings filled
almost exclusively with national
tours. The last center-produced
musical, “Little Dancer,” was
commissioned by Kaiser and
staged, with Tiler Peck, Boyd
Gaines and the late Rebecca Luk-
er in the leads, in November 2014.
Jeffrey Finn, the center’s vice
president and executive pro-
ducer of theater, is a retrospec-
tive technician: His “Broadway
Center Stage” series, soon to em-
bark on its fourth season, has
offered some sterling short-run
concert revivals of such musicals
as “Next to Normal,” “The Who’s
Tommy” and “The Music Man.”
The pre-Broadway run in 2018 of
the jukebox musical “Ain’t Too
Proud: The Life and Times of the
KENNEDY CENTER FROM E1
THEATERMore is possible on these stagesPHOTOS BY SCOTT SUCHMAN/KENNEDY CENTERFROM TOP: Stephanie J. Block sings “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked” during the recent “50 Years of
Broadway at the Kennedy Center” show; LaChanze performs “Waiting for Life to Begin” from “Once on This
Island”; and Vanessa Williams and the ensemble. The night was full of nostalgic performances.