Wednesday, May 20, 1998
Musical thespians sing, dance toward stardom
AWARDS: Contest created by actress Carol Burnett helps young
performers
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Staff
With songs from "The Wizard of Oz," "The Pajama Game" and "Hello
Dolly," the 20th annual Carol Burnett Awards paid tribute to happy
times and classic musicals.
The ceremony, held May 18 in Schoenberg Hall, recognized the
theatrical talents of UCLA students. In the three-and-a-half hour
show, composed of 23 five-minute skits, the students of John Hall’s
Music Theater Workshop competed for Carol Burnett’s prize money.
The event continues a tradition Burnett herself was once the
beneficiary of.
As a young performer, Burnett attracted the attention of a
wealthy man one night. He gave her $1,000 on the spot for a trip to
New York to make her way on Broadway. The only stipulation was that
she repay the favor to someone else if she ever found herself in a
position to do so.
With this in mind, the UCLA alumna began her very own contest
for students of the Musical Theater Workshop. Every spring quarter,
the students of this elite class, which exists on a try-out per
quarter basis, put together their own skits for the show. The
students devise segments which emphasize their strengths, whether
they be in acting, singing or dancing.
Winners receive monetary compensation for their efforts, with
separate categories for males and females. First-place contestants
walked away with $1,000 each, while second-place recipients won
$500. The honorable mention performers, two for each male and
female category, took home $250.
Though the stakes were high, classmates seemed more supportive
of each others’ efforts than threatened by them. The group gave
cheers of encouragement to one another throughout the evening,
apparently pleased with the final results.
Teresa-Marie Sanchez won first place in the women’s competition
for a hilarious, twist-of-fate act that had audience members
rolling in the aisles. At first, she portrayed a diner waitress
that sang in a squeaky voice of wanting to be a movie star, as she
wiped down a table in a pink and white apron. However, after
visited by her fairy godfather (last year’s first-place male
winner, Thomas Lenk), she moved from singing Bock and Hamick’s
"Movie Star" to their swanky, feather boa-inspired piece
"Gorgeous."
Aaron Henderson won first place in the male category, his strong
voice carrying through in his rendition of Jule Styne’s "All of My
Life" from the musical "Do-Re-Mi" as well as in Walter Marks’s
musical theme song "Golden Rainbow." He threw off a few lines about
luck as he tossed the dice among some fellow suspendered,
card-playing youths, to set the rough-guy-lookin’-for-a-chance
stage.
Second place for women went to Lily Liu, singing two songs from
Kander and Ebb’s "Cabaret." As a male counterpart attempted to
speak meaningfully to her at a cafe table, she blew him off with
"Mein Herr," proclaiming her desire to end it all. Once he
proclaimed his love for her and left the room, she ended with
"Maybe This Time," expressing her true feelings.
As for the male counter-award, Thomas McMahon stole the show
with his goofy representation of a child’s life. Pulling a wagon of
stuffed animals amidst his three juvenile buddies, he bossily
insisted on being the lion, singing "If I Were King of the Forest"
from Arlen and Harburg’s "The Wizard of Oz." He then naughtily sang
lines such as "Go tell a chicken, ‘suck my Dicken’" from a McDaniel
and Schaeffer’s Saturday Night Live parody.
Honorable mentions went to Hillary Hesse and Minglie Chan. Hesse
performed a comical pair of Adler and Ross tunes, "Whatever Lola
Wants" and "The Pajama Game’s" "Hey There," as a hot and heavy
actress back stage on her opening night. Chan decided her skit
would revolve around, essentially, an excuse to get sexy, singing
the tunes "Broadway Baby" by Steven Sondheim and "Born to
Entertain" by Paley and Laird.
Male winners in this field included Brian Bennitt and Joe
Santiago. Playing a fickle lover, Bennitt went from mooning Kahn
and Donaldson’s "I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight" to agreeing
with Jerry Herman’s view that "It Only Takes a Moment" to fall in
love again.
On the other hand, Santiago skipped the love thing altogether,
singing Streuse and Adams’ "Night Song" and then Coleman and
Leigh’s "Tall Hope," as a struggling Broadway performer.
Overall, the awards ceremony provides an ego boost and an
addition to one’s resume for winners. The monetary addition will
allow Sanchez to afford headshots, to move closer to that goal of
stage stardom.
"It’s been a long time since I’ve had that much money at once,"
admits a glowing McMahon. "I think I’ll save it for when I
eventually head out to New York."
Someone’s got to follow in Burnett’s footsteps.