The Kennedy Center takes a bow

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts may have had some leaky roofs to contend with in its first decade, but it has splendidly survived the brickbats from architecture critics when it opened.

For, however its massive shape above the Potomac River strikes the eye of the beholder, it works. Its theater spaces serve their purposes. Its audiences may not always like what they see, but most of them like the place where they are seeing it.

The current ten days of 10th anniversary celebration are reminding Washington of the range of performing arts brought to a capital whose rise from cultural provincialism has been aided so significantly by the Kennedy Center. Lionel Hampton's jazz. Leonard bernstein's "Mass." Theater from Japan. A concert honoring Aaron Copland.

An ovation, please.