The Kennedy Center is not doing great. The best thing they’ve got at the moment is the touring production of Les Miserables — which I love, but which anyone anywhere near a medium-sized city can see at least once a year. Other than that, they’ve got performances from several acts that aren’t even well-known enough to have Wikipedia pages, a Dolly Parton concert with no Dolly Parton …

National Symphony Orchestra Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony Concert Hall Join us for an unforgettable multimedia experience featuring Dolly on screen—a vivid, visual-musical journey through the music, life, and legacy of the Southern icon. Accompanied by guest vocalists and musicians, Steven Reineke conducts new and innovative orchestrations by David Hamilton of Dolly’s hit songs, including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “I Will Always Love You,” plus her own personal favorites. Please note: Dolly Parton does not perform in person at this concert.

And The Lion King. Not the stage musical. The movie from 1994. Probably because a certain someone finds a certain song especially relatable.


However, last night, there was a rather impressive performance from live human people we’ve actually heard of before — because a group of Senate Democrats rented out the space for a Pride event that they didn’t tell Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell was going to be a Pride event, and which they definitely didn’t tell him was going to be produced by Jeffrey Seller, who produced Hamilton.

As you may recall, Ric Grenell is very, very upset at Seller and Lin-Manuel Miranda for canceling a planned 2026 run at the formerly politically neutral Kennedy Center, just because Trump purged almost the entire board and replaced them with random Republicans who would be loyal to him, and also announced that drag shows would be barred and nothing would be “woke.”

Anyway! The 90 minute concert was called “Love Is Love” and featured Hamilton alum Javier Muñoz singing “Satisfied,” Beth Malone (who originated the role of Alison Bechdel in Fun Home) singing “An Old-Fashioned Love Story” from Andrew Lippa’s off-Broadway musical The Wild Party, and Lippa himself performing a song from his oratorio I Am Harvey Milk with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.

. . .