Paul Anka and David Mamet to be honored by a Kennedy Center in turmoil

This year’s Kennedy Center Honors will celebrate pop crooner Paul Anka and provocative playwright David Mamet, the institution announced Monday, as it presses forward with its marquee event even as much else at the center remains in upheaval.

The lineup also includes Andy Garcia, the veteran actor of Ocean’s Eleven fame; David Foster, the prolific music producer behind hits by Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and other stars; and Barbara Mandrell, a diamond of country music in the 1970s and ’80s.

The honors ceremony is the most visible event of the year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has been in turmoil since President Donald Trump’s takeover alienated some of its audience and prompted a legal fight.

The president’s allies are trying to convince a federal judge to allow the center to close for a two-year, $257 million renovation, a plan being challenged in a lawsuit by a Democratic member of Congress. Instead of holding the honors ceremony in its Opera House, as it usually does, the program is set for Dec. 7 at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C.

For weeks, the center’s main building has been off limits to the public, a closure that center officials have described as temporary, citing potential danger from crumbling infrastructure.

After Trump skipped the honors ceremony in his first term, he has dominated it in his second. Last year, he personally screened the honorees (rejecting some whom he described as “wokesters”), announced the selections in a press event in the center’s Grand Foyer, and cast himself as the emcee, to host the show.

This time, the announcement came in a restrained news release — but it still bore Trump’s name. It began: “President of the United States Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announce the 49th class of honorees.”

Trump, who is chair of the center’s board, was listed as having some role in the approval of nominees and was quoted as saying, “We are proud to honor this year’s class and to continue a tradition that has defined the center for nearly 50 years.”

The Kennedy Center’s announcement Monday did not address whether Trump planned to host the ceremony again. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether he plans to attend.

In recent months, the president has been furious that a federal judge has stood in the way of his agenda there. The court ordered his name removed from the building and has temporarily blocked his plan to shutter the center for the renovation. Trump has threatened to cancel the project if his name is not allowed to be restored to the marble.

The Kennedy Center Honors began in 1978 to pay tribute to artists with careers of major significance. The event centers on a series of tribute performances, often from high-profile singers and actors — a framework that can be complicated as some performers have been unwilling to associate with an institution run by Trump.

Among this year’s honorees, Mamet, an acclaimed playwright whose works include Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo, has publicly embraced Trump and his politics. Since the president’s first term, Mamet has railed against what he called the “left’s anti-Trump psychosis” and what he perceives as the entertainment industry’s silencing of conservative voices.

Anka, who wrote the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s classic “My Way,” had agreed to perform the song at an inaugural ball for Trump in 2017. But he backed out, citing a scheduling conflict. At the time, he described Trump as “an old friend of mine of 50 years” but declined to say whether their politics aligned.

Garcia’s Hollywood breakthrough was in the 1987 crime drama The Untouchables, which was written by Mamet. In the nearly four decades that followed, Garcia collected memorable roles such as a ruthless casino mogul in the Ocean’s franchise and a hotheaded mobster in The Godfather Part III. The latter part earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Foster, a 16-time Grammy winner, has had a star-studded career that includes collaborations with Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Toni Braxton, and the rock band Chicago.

Mandrell, a darling of Nashville, Tenn., with a soulful flair, once ruled the country charts, including with her 1979 rendition of the confessional hit “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right.” She retired in 1997.

The honors ceremony is typically broadcast several weeks after the live event.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.