It took them waaaaaay too long to honor Linda Ronstadt. She is finally being honored this year. But it would have been nice if they had done so before she was so disabled with Parkinson's. I treasure this tradition and look forward to many more years of honorees. I just hope that they continue to honor those who are truly deserving and those that have achieved something over a long career, rather than something that was only recently a big "hit".
The start of a great tradition. However, Leonard distinctively said the Honors are for individuals who have made significant contributions through their lifetimes, so I still don't see why they gave a slot to the co-creators of Hamilton in 2018. It's not like Hamilton hasn't been recognized (most people would kill for eleven Tonys and a Pulitzer) and the fifth Honors could have gone to a number of deserving members of the performing arts.
The inaugural list: Marian Anderson Richard Rodgers Balanchine Astaire Arthur Rubinstein Over time, the, as it were, *backlog* of then-very-senior-but-still-living honorees has slowly been taken care of, so it occasionally happens lately that younger wunderkinder will snag the plaudits. Lucas and Spielberg were recipients, but Orson Welles was perhaps dead too soon.
