VIDEO: The Best of Broadway at the Kennedy Center Honors
Past honorees have included Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Barbara Cook, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and more!
By: Nicole Rosky Dec. 19, 2021
On December 22 (9pm on CBS), five Honorees will receive the 44th Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. Recipients to be honored at the annual national celebration of the arts in Washington, D.C. are: operatic bass-baritone Justino Díaz, Motown founder, songwriter, producer, and director Berry Gordy, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, legendary stage and screen icon Bette Midler, and singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.
The Honors recipients are recognized for their contributions to American culture through the performing arts-whether in music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures, or television-and are confirmed by the Executive Committee of the Center's Board of Trustees. The primary criterion in the selection process is excellence. The Honors are not designated by art form or category of artistic achievement; the selection process, over the years, has produced balance among the various arts and artistic disciplines.
Plenty of Broadway babies have been honored at past ceremonies and the best of Broadway makes the trip to DC to tribute them. Check out just a few of our favorites below! Which past Broadway performance at the Kennedy Center Honors is your favorite?
Barbara Cook (2011)
Featuring: Laura Osnes, Rebecca Luker, Kelli O'Hara, Glenn Close, Sutton Foster, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald
Chita Rivera (2002)
Featuring: Hal Prince, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Donna Murphy, Valarie Pettiford, Charlotte d'Amboise
Jerry Herman (2010)
Featuring: Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing, Chita Rivera, Sutton Foster, Kelsey Grammer, Matthew Morrison, Christine Ebersole, Christine Baranski, Laura Benanti, Kelli O'Hara, Matt Bomer
Julie Andrews (2001)
Featuring: Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Carol Burnett, Robert Goulet, Jeremy Irons, Rebecca Luker
Shirley MacLaine (2013)
Featuring: Kathy Bates, Sutton Foster, Anna Kendrick, Karen Olivo, Patina Miller
Angela Lansbury (2000)
Featuring: Glenn Close, Len Cariou, Nathan Lane, Marin Mazzie, Donna Murphy, Karen Ziemba
Andrew Lloyd Webber (2006)
Featuring: Corey Glover, Christine Ebersole, Elena Roger, Josh Groban, Betty Buckley
Kander & Ebb (1998)
Featuring: Alec Baldwin, Alan Cumming, Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera, Liza Minnelli
Carol Burnett (2003)
Featuring: Julie Andrews, Chita Rivera, Elaine Stritch, Tim Conway, Scott Bakula, John Schneider, Kim Cattrall, Florence Henderson, Reba McEntire, Harvey Korman, Gary Beech, Bernadette Peters
Jule Styne (1990)
Featuring: Tyne Daly, Hal Linden, Maureen McGovern, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Ann Reinking
Stephen Sondheim (1993)
Featuring: Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Scott Bakula, Jason Alexander
The Creators of Hamilton (2018)
Featuring: Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Christopher Jackson
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