Arena Stage honored two District leaders facing career crossroads at its annual gala Monday night. Recently deposed Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter danced to Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive,” while a frail Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke feebly, departed early, and left attendees whispering about her future in office.
“Tonight we celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of two trailblazing women,” said the actor Felicia Curry as the evening’s entertainment began in the Fichandler theater. Laura Benanti, the Tony Award-winning musical comedy actress who impersonates Melania Trump on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, received top billing, but the two contrasting acceptance speeches quickly became talking points for those present.
Norton stumbled through a short speech in which she appeared to struggle with both reading and comprehension, unable to deliver more than a garbled, Mad Libs-style version of her intended remarks. Beth Newburger-Schwartz, the name of a former Arena Stage chair, came out as “Ethel N-E-W Burger Schwartz.” Norton also referred to grants from “the National Environment for the Arts” and praised Arena Stage for its contributions to “freedom of suppression and democracy.”
Artistic director Hana S. Sharif stared as one of her staffers assisted Norton off the stage to polite applause. She then awkwardly transitioned from presenting the Newburger Schwartz Award, given to a female leader who betters the community in which she lives and works, to the American Voice Award, an honor bestowed on Rutter for her dedication to the arts and arts advocacy.
“I think we need to find her a successor,” one theater administrator remarked of Norton at the afterparty, while a few feet away, Rutter was surrounded by dancing actors and members of the Gay Men’s Chorus.
In her moving, ten-minute-long remarks, the former Kennedy Center president thanked Sharif and executive producer Edgar Dobie for putting a bright spot on her calendar during dark times.
“Your email came one week to the day of when I was”—Rutter paused for effect—”departed,” she said, drawing laughs. “This was a beacon that has been so important for me.”
The gala marked Rutter’s first invitation to speak publicly since February 7, when President Trump announced he would end her 11-year tenure at the arts center early. After offloading a dozen board members appointed by President Biden, Trump moved to dismiss Rutter, who had already planned to step down this year, and install himself as chair, replacing philanthropist, panda enthusiast, and Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein.
Instead of artists and prominent art supporters, the Kennedy Center’s board now includes Trump loyalists, loyalists’ wives, and even his chief of staff’s stepmother, plus Fox News hosts Maria Baritomo and Laura Ingraham. Former ambassador Ric Grenell serves as interim president, although he has yet to address the center’s staff. Instead, Grenell has accused Rutter of “going broke by going woke” and running the center into the red. (That is not accurate according to the most recent public tax records, which show a budget surplus.) The National Symphony and Washington National Opera, which have separate boards, both announced their 2025-2026 seasons, but the new regime has yet to schedule any theater and dance performances, which typically bring thousands of patrons to the Kennedy Center each week.
Rutter’s track record for creating must-see DC entertainment is one reason why Arena Stage fêted her Monday night. Sharif praised her for expanding “Kennedy Center artistic programming to more accurately reflect the full spectrum of American performing arts…from Renée Fleming to Q-Tip.”
Rutter was accompanied by her husband, the trombonist Peter Ellefson, and her daughter, the interior designer Gillian Card, who filmed from the front row. While she refrained from making fireworks statements about the president who “departed” her, she did admit to recently attending a performance incognito (“in a mask”) and mourned the loss of programming that Washington may never see. “We felt like we were on the crest of a wave,” she said. “We had so many great things that we were planning, things that we were so proud of and that we could see moving forward.”
Heading into the gala, a big question for liberal-leaning theater nerds was whether Benanti would go all out with her Melania impersonation, and perhaps even address Rutter in character. Sadly she did not, but her set did include parody of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” sung by adding a Slovenian accent, sucking in her cheeks and pursing her lips, an expression the actress has called “resting Eastern European bitch face.”
“Aren’t vee rich? Are vee a pair? Me trying to hide underground, you with that hair?” Benanti said, tossing back her own brunette locks for emphasis. She ended the number down on one knee, one hand raised to the woman who knows firsthand there’s no need to send in the clowns. As Benanti sang to peals of laugher, “Don’t bother, they’re here.”
