Before his final bow, a Kennedy Center veteran hands out one last backstage pass

The Washington Post: Mickey Berra tells of drinking Scotch with Princess Margaret, smoking a stogy with George Burns, placing a football bet for Elizabeth Taylor, and shooting the breeze with James Brown. He remembers the challenge of getting Willie Nelson’s 21-ton touring bus on stage for the Kennedy Center Honors, cutting a trapdoor into the Opera House stage for the tour of “Les Miserables” and flying a helicopter onstage for “Miss Saigon.” A Kennedy Center stagehand who stepped right out of Central Casting, Berra lets these and a host of other stories fly during a gossipy, witty and always entertaining backstage tour, one of the last the 45-year veteran will give before retiring next month.