The Steady Drip: Is the Kennedy Center Returning to Good Taste? (Connecting the Dots: The Kennedy Center, CNN, Lyndon B. Johnson, Green Cross International, The Roosevelt Institute & Soros Funding, All Networking)

Is the Kennedy Center Returning to Good Taste? (Connecting the Dots: The Kennedy Center, CNN, Lyndon B. Johnson, Green Cross International, The Roosevelt Institute & Soros Funding, All Networking)

Thursday, 19 June 2025 05:07 PM EDT

Newsmax.com

By Tamar Alexia Fleishman, Esq.

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (KAYLA BARTKOWSKI/Getty)

https://www.newsmax.com/tamarfleishman/kennedy-center-donald-trump-richard-grenell/2025/06/19/id/1215679/

Overlooking the Potomac River is America's premier cultural campus: The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. It's our national performing arts center, with Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson involved in its creation.

So, in the course of things, it makes sense that sitting presidents appoint their own board members during their administration.

In this hyperpartisan era, it's not surprising that the bought-and-paid-for mainstream media reported based on anonymous sources that artists were balking at President Donald Trump's ideals of bringing the performance halls back to a prestigious, family-appropriate collection of venues. During the pre-opening command performance of Les Miserables, it was said that about 10 performers from the troupe were going to boycott their own starring performances.

President Donald Trump told the New York Post, "I couldn't care less, all I do is run the country well."

Later, Richard Grenell, Trump's envoy for special missions and the interim head of the Kennedy Center, posted that the reports had been false and that the news outlets were embarrassing themselves.

"Weeks ago, CNN had multiple anonymous sources who said the cast of Les Mis would absolutely boycott the opening at the @kencen and shut down the show. Most every news outlet in the U.S. simply repeated the same anonymously sourced item," he wrote.

"No outlet did original reporting. It was repeat and retweet.

"The story was fake news. I knew it at the time but wanted to wait to prove it to the world."

I'm glad people can enjoy the arts at the Kennedy Center at all different levels. It just happens that I was a professional violinist.

My bona fides include soloing with the Chicago Symphony eight times. I was principal second of Chicago's Civic Orchestra under batons including Sir Neville Marriner's.

I studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Daniel Heifetz. It did seem unfathomable to me that artists would boycott their own performances.

From a practical point of view, no two performances are alike.

I promise, some performances are a little more perfect than others. You never know which is your time to shine!

It would never have occurred to me to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime over politics. After all, it's arguably been over 60 years since we had a president who truly championed classical and all styles of music the way President Trump does.

President Trump is the first president to tour the Kennedy Center, to check out the goods — real estate magnate that he is.

I don't know what changes to the facilities he's planned. But I'm confident that in his tradition, they will be the very best.

Again, not knowing what changes might be underway, I would suggest enlarging and snazzing up the restrooms. Everything with the beautiful destination needs to meet the moment.

There are parking spaces in the venue's lot available at least 24 hours ahead of the show for a discount, but only a small number are online. Regular parking in the garage was plentiful.

Available before the show are a bar, a cafe, and the Roof Terrace Restaurant. Both the cafe and Roof Terrace Restaurant have gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Capitol and parts of northern Virginia with access to the outdoors.

You can order anything from a charcuterie plate to crab dip plentiful with jumbo lump crab to even big, juicy-looking steak frites.

Les Miserables is one of the longest running musicals in history, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It's set during the late 18th century, when, I argue, there were several movements intersecting to change the human condition forever.

These include the Revolutionary Age, including our own; the Age of Enlightenment; upheaval in Christianity, including the birth of personally oriented Protestant faiths such as Methodism; and the end of the Great Vowel Shift, which even today has bypassed isolated areas, rendering speech a class signifier.

The original novel is very long. Much like Russian novels, it has a web of interconnected plots and characters.

Jean Valjean, the story's protagonist, reminds us of the harsh justice and cheapness of life in a bygone era. Economics, social structure, desperation, sacrifice, and redemption are all themes that figure in.

In what must have been a new literary device unlike the ancient Aesop's Fables and the more recent to Hugo, Grimm's Fairy Tales, characters don't necessarily get theirs in the end.

The music, ranging from soaring arias to grand marches, is very catchy. Having a live pit orchestra makes things special.

I found the acoustics in the opera house maybe not as balanced as could be, with percussion stepping over voices at times. I'm definitely curious as to acoustical changes that might be in consideration.

I've seen a few productions of Les Mis, including in London and when it first came to the Kennedy Center in the 1980s. This was the first show I experienced with American accents.

I noticed a specific decision to have a more natural style of singing, not that older Broadway style with excessive vibrato.

The opera house is a more intimate hall.

The technology of the set was mind-blowing without feeling techy. I could tell lots of audience members were impressed.

During intermission, people flock outside to the lit fountains, both romantic and glamorous.

Connecting the Dots:

Walter Isaacson was the chairman & CEO for CNN and is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Beatrice W. Welters was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and a trustee emeritus at the Kennedy Center.

Albert H. Small was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and is a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center.

Robert O. Anderson was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and a trustee emeritus at the Kennedy Center.

Henry E. Catto was the vice chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank) and a trustee emeritus at the Kennedy Center.

Alma L. Gildenhorn was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and an honorary trustee at the Kennedy Center.

Sidney Harman was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center.

Condoleezza Rice is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and was a trustee at the Kennedy Center.

James E. Rogers was a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center and is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

David M. Rubenstein was a benefactor for the Aspen Institute (think tank), the chairman & corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center, is a trustee at the Kennedy Center, the president of the Economic Club of Washington and a co-chairman for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Beatrice W. Welters was a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank) and a trustee emeritus at the Kennedy Center.

James D. Wolfensohn was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank) and the chairman emeritus for the Kennedy Center.

James A. Johnson is a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was the president of the Economic Club of Washington, is a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center and a senior director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Caroline B. Kennedy is an emeritus trustee at the Kennedy Center, a director emeritus for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

George Soros is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank) and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a corporate fund board member for the Kennedy Center, an Oak Bluffs (MA) Martha’s Vineyard homeowner and was the president of the Economic Club of Washington.

Stephen L. Carter is an Oak Bluffs (MA) Martha’s Vineyard homeowner and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an Oak Bluffs (MA) Martha’s Vineyard homeowner and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Walter Isaacson is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think tank) and was the chairman & CEO for CNN.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was a correspondent for CNN and an Oak Bluffs (MA) Martha’s Vineyard homeowner.