Five for the Show
A look at the careers of this year's five honorees.
Every year since 1978, the Kennedy Center has saluted a handful of national icons for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. This year's honorees will be celebrated Sunday, Dec. 3, with a gala performance and dinner at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Every year since 1978, the Kennedy Center has saluted a handful of national icons for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. This year's honorees will be celebrated Sunday, Dec. 3, with a gala performance and dinner at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Peyton Hoge/For The Washington Post
Photos
A look at the legendary careers of this year's Kennedy Center honorees: Steven Spielberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson and Zubin Mehta.
 
When you're in Dolly Parton's presence, you can't help but become transfixed by her, um, abundance. It's her dominant trait, and it's particularly astounding when examined up close. From two feet away, for instance.
 
How perfect: Smokey Robinson, forever the romantic, is about to explain his long-standing affinity for amorous expression, and his publicist has decided to dim the lights. Ooo baby baby!
 
After more than three decades in the business, filmmaker Steven Spielberg still wants his choices to surprise us.
 
He led orchestras in New York and Los Angeles, but the conductor's greatest role may be as director of the Israel Philharmonic, where music serves a diplomatic mission.
 
With a string of blockbuster musicals such as "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera," what is the composer best known for now in Britain? Judge of a TV talent show.
 

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