Hamilton Cocreators to Receive Kennedy Center Special Honors

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of four honorees who will receive the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements as well a special honors distinction for the Broadway musical Hamilton and its cocreators.

Recipients to be honored at the 41st annual national celebration of the arts are singer and actor Cher, composer and pianist Philip Glass, country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. The cocreators of Hamilton, writer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and music director Alex Lacamoire, will also receive a unique Kennedy Center Honors "as trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category."

The 2018 Kennedy Center Honors Gala concludes with a dinner in the Grand Foyer. The Kennedy Center Honors medallions will be presented on Saturday, December 1, the night before the Gala, at a State Department dinner. The Honors Gala, where the honorees will be saluted by today's leading performers, will be recorded for broadcast on the CBS Network for the 41st consecutive year as a two-hour primetime special on Wednesday, December 26.

The Honors recipients recognized for their contributions to American culture through the performing arts — whether in music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures, or television — are confirmed by the executive committee of the Center's board of trustees. The honoree selection process includes solicitation of recommendations from the Kennedy Center board of trustees, the artistic community, and the general public. This year's selected honorees were chosen based on the recommendation of the Center's Special Honors Advisory Committee.