Prestige, perspective for Kennedy honorees

Chita Rivera confesses that it is taking time to “really settle in” to being a recipient of a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor.

But the Tony Award-winning musical-comedy veteran of such shows as “West Side Story,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” says she was able to put the honor in perspective the day after receiving the award. “I found myself walking down my driveway taking the garbage out,” says Rivera, who has a cameo in the new movie version of “Chicago.” “It was really very funny,” she says. “I should have worn my medal!”

Joining Rivera as recipients this year are actor James Earl Jones, conductor James Levine, singer-songwriter Paul Simon and actress Elizabeth Taylor. CBS telecasts the two-hour special, “The 25th Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts,” on Friday.

The star-studded, black-tie event was taped Dec. 8 at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House in the nation’s capital, with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in attendance. As is customary with the honors, they were bestowed the night before at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Rivera, an ageless 69, says that Powell “was the hit of the State Department dinner. He sang an entire chorus of ‘America.’ Everybody just flipped. He’s quite a funny man.”

Creator and executive producer George Stevens Jr. says the Kennedy Center Honors have fulfilled all of his expectations. “I didn’t see all of the ramifications,” he says. “But in 1978, there was no national recognition for people in the performing arts. This was to fill the gap, and I think it has in spades.”

A respectable ratings getter, the special is one of the classiest shows to grace the small screen every year. Stevens praises CBS for airing the show since its inception. “It’s a wonderful partnership because they believe in it,” says Stevens. “They ask us to do the show that the Kennedy Center wants as opposed to trying to bend it to the times.”

Stevens admits that audiences’ expectations for the Kennedy Center Honors show are extremely high, making the show no easy task. “The nightmare begins the day after each show,” he says. “We have to find ways to meet those expectations. The secret is that each year we have five new lives to deal with and that is the inspiration.”

Each year, an artists committee of 100 people from all different areas of the performing arts makes recommendations for the Kennedy Center Honors. Stevens says that sometimes the public writes in with recommendations. “Then the chairman of the Kennedy Center and the president of the Kennedy Center and I work with those recommendations and bring a slate of perhaps a dozen names to the executive committee of the Kennedy Center, which is the governing group. They make the final decisions.”

For the first time in the Kennedy Center Honors’ history, one of the honorees this year, Paul McCartney, had to decline. “It was totally unexpected,” says Stevens. “After he enthusiastically accepted, apparently his daughter decided to get married and set her wedding date for that weekend. So he was very apologetic and asked to be considered for next year.”

Waiting in the wings was another musical Paul -- Paul Simon.

“Paul had been discussed and was destined for next year,” says Stevens. “So we were able to make this transition.”

Each honoree is kept in the dark regarding his or her tribute, which typically includes some laudatory comments and a performance celebrating the honoree’s career. “Chicago” director Rob Marshall staged Rivera’s toe-tapping celebration.

“It was amazing,” says Rivera. “You are going to see [singer-dancer] Charlotte D’Amboise. You are going to see my sweet Brian Stokes Mitchell” -- Rivera and Mitchell appeared together in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” -- “and so many dancers who danced with me in my [one-woman] show. They did clips and then they did the whole dance-at-the-gym number from ‘West Side Story.’ Then they got, I think, 30 or 40 little dancers from various schools around the city for the end of the number.”

Rivera cried throughout her presentation. “Rob taught the kids the steps and he kept saying, ‘When you do this, Chita will cry. When you do that, Chita will cry.’ Isn’t that adorable? I have got loving, wonderful friends. I am a very fortunate woman to have these friends, and they just happen to be brilliant. Isn’t that something?”

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To see it

“The 25th Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts,” hosted by Walter Cronkite, can be seen at 9 p.m. Friday on CBS.