11 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Chita Rivera will be among the Kennedy Center Honors recipients this year. Michael Kaiser is quoted in the article.  Jacqueline Trescott reports in the Washington Post:


http://www.washingto...-2002Jul30.html

[Alexandra]

I hate to be provincial, but aren't these supposed to be American awards?  One doesn't need to be a citizen, and certainly one doesn't have to be born here, but I can't think of another honoree who hasn't spent most of his or her adult life here.

Sir Paul is now an American citizen?????

Elizabeth Taylor used to come to the Kennedy Center regularly when she was Mrs. John Warner.

[dirac]

I don't think it's provincial at all.  (I had the same thought, so perhaps that's why. )  And it's spreading the net far too wide, IMO.


  If John Lennon, who lived in this country for the last decade of his life (and became a citizen), were still around and they gave it to him, that would be all right.  But Macca is a Brit through and through, and he's been knighted, already.


I assume, of course, that this award has chiefly to do with McCartney's status as the remaining chief member of the most famous and influential rock band ever, and not to do with his post-Beatles accomplishments, such as "My Love," "Admiral Halsey," "Let 'Em In," -- I'd go on, but you'd all go into sugar shock......

[Watermill]

Dirac: you've brought up another reason to exclude McCartney:
the quality of his composing over the years (I include the very derivative Vanilla Sky stuff) has declined dreadfully. Take away his work with Lennon and (IMHO) you don't have a Kennedy Center Award Winner (Apologies to die hard Paul fans)
Heck I'd give it to Springsteen, Randy Newman or even Neil Young before I'd give it to the "Cute One"  (Oops, Neil Young is Canadian?)

But Ms Rivera certainly deserves this honor.
For West Side Story: both stage & screen! (BTW: Few made the cut. I knew Grover Dale: I think not getting into the film was one of his greatest disappointments. He was a far better dancer than most of the movie gang members)
For the terrific dead-in-the-eyes dance hall girl Nickie in Sweet Charity.
But mostly for her incredible stage work.  Few remember that she was the original Rose in Bye Bye Birdie, or in the quirky Bajour (only die hard B'way oldies will remember that one).
I took my wife to see Kiss of the Spider Woman for her birthday and we popped round to the stage door.  When I informed Ms Rivera that it was my wife's bithday present to witness her amazing performance, she was incredibly gracious and spent almost ten minutes chatting. This after an exhausting late performance.   I've been a big fan ever since. I'm very excited for her: she is the soul of broadway dancing!

Watermill

[Victoria Leigh]

Watermill, I have been a great fan of Chita Rivera since I saw her in the original Broadway production of West Side Story when I was a kid.  However, I'm pretty sure it was Rita Moreno who played Anita in the movie.

[Watermill]

...I always do that!  It was her husband Tony Mordente that made the cut.  Wishful thinking.  Of course it was Rita Moreno.

BTW: a quick check of cast lists for the opening Broadway cast and the movie shows that out of a cast of 40 only 6 made it into the movie. There could have been other B'way dancers not listed in the orig cast who turn up in the film.

The main thing: what I would not give to have seen Chita heat it up in the gym!  And oh how I wish it were on film. At least there's a young Elliot Feld to admire.

con mucho carino,

Watermill

[dirac]

And now McCartney's not even bothering to show up for the award.  Report from the BBC:




http://news.bbc.co.u...biz/2204622.stm

[Watermill]

...talk about taking "let it be" to an extreme....
I thought he was a bit more PR savvy than that....
Oh well, maybe the walrus wasn't Paul after all...
Number nine...number nine...number nine...

Hey, what's Ringo doing that night?

[piccolo]

I just hope Paul Simon doesn't feel like he was the second choice to be asked to the Prom... I like Sir Paul McCartney but 1) why was he nominated and 2) why doesn't he care?

[Calliope]

I'm not a big Beatles fan, but I have to defend Sir Paul.
He's not going because he has a family wedding, fair enough.

Just in the past few years there's been many "foreign" winners
Julie Andrews, Pavarotti, Angela Lansbury, Placido Domingo, Sean Connery, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich

I thought it was for those who had an impact on the American arts.

[Watermill]

Ooops!...Someone told me it was a concert date...a family wedding is different...maybe he is the walrus!

Still: Look at Calliope's list of foreign recipients.  Is he really in that company?
Impact-wise: definitely.  
Quality of work: a distant seventh
(in my Humble Opinion, of course)

I think Paul Simon outwrote him for 30 years, so I'm having a happy ending.

...which I'm going to enjoy while I can, because in a few years they'll be giving it to Adam Sandler and Madonna
...must keep up those ratings!

Yay for Chita!

[dirac]

Nope, John was definitely the walrus, although he did fog the issue with "Glass Onion."  I think that's what Lennon told Jann Wenner, anyway.