Monday, March 1, 1999
Pillow talk
THEATER: ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ has members of the Musical
Theater Workshop singing the praises of comedian
and guest director Carol Burnett
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
They hired vocal coaches. They vowed to lose weight. They
arranged their class schedules so they would have ample time to
work with her. The buzz in UCLA’s Musical Theater Workshop centered
on one name: Carol Burnett.
The comic actress is central to one of the school’s most beloved
legends – a benefactor who saw promise in an early performance gave
Burnett $1,000 to jump start her career on the condition that she
never reveal his identity and that she return the favor someday.
She has been doing just that for 20 years, via the annual campus
competition that bears her name.
"Every year at the Carol Burnett Awards everyone begs and pleads
and wonders why Carol is never there when she’s giving so much
money," says senior theater student Teresa Marie Sanchez. "Finally
we got her on campus. I asked her, ‘What can we do to twist your
arm? How can we get you to do something at school? Preferably "Once
Upon a Mattress.’"
The goofy, spoofy musical launched Burnett’s career when it
opened on Broadway 40 years ago. As students prepared for its Feb.
26 opening at Schoenberg Hall, they couldn’t help but wonder about
the production and its guest director as a sort of fairy godmother
vehicle.
Burnett – famous for her cacophonous laugh, Tarzan yell and
approachable brand of anti-glamour – would be an unlikely candidate
for such a role by fairy tale standards. But "Mattress" centers on
a princess who snores, guzzles from her goblet and spells
atrociously. Burnett’s presence is a casual one, then, as she calls
out the occasional suggestion and greeting from the auditorium’s
back rows. She doesn’t understand the stir her visit has
caused.
Were young performers intimidated by the legendary actress?
"I hope not," Burnett says. "Because I did it, that could be a
little intimidating. But I hope not."
And this isn’t an issue – now that the cast has solidified,
focusing on lighting logistics and the challenge of jitterbugging,
an extremely fast, extremely silly dance known as the "Spanish
Panic." But after months of grooming themselves for the
opportunity, students found auditions both competitive and, well,
daunting.
"(Producer and professor) John Hall says, ‘All Dauntlesses come
in,’" says Mike Shapiro, the third-year physiological sciences
student who eventually landed the role of Prince Dauntless "The
Drab," opposite Sanchez’s Winnifred the Woe-Begone. "You have the
whole side section of Jan Popper theater – there are like 18 people
– all getting up to sing, ‘Boy. Flower.’"
Shapiro and his fellow students sang these opening lines of "Man
to Man Talk" at an unusual plethora of callbacks. Burnett finally
settled on a double cast, with separate leads for each weekend of
the production’s run.
"Double the work for her, half the work for us," Shapiro
says.
But Burnett, who recently put in typical 12-hour rehearsals for
the Mark Taper Forum’s "Putting it Together," doesn’t see her
current schedule as quite so grueling.
"In the real world, it’s a lot tougher – twice this. But then
again, the kids do have their school work. They’ve been working
hard as far as I’m concerned," Burnett says.
Workshop members describe rehearsals with a dreamy, anxious
array of emotions that stems from working with an icon.
"The first three quarters of the whole process I was walking on
eggshells because I was trying to uphold this professional
attitude, but after a while I realized I should just have fun, and
that’s when the show started coming together," Shapiro says.
"She’ll get up there and give an example of what she wants for
Winnifred, and I’ll get to do a scene with her, and she’s just
amazing. She’s one of the best comedians in the industry."
Sanchez emphasizes that Burnett, while very hands-on, isn’t out
to create Carol Juniors. It’s hard not to hear a bit of Burnett’s
"aw-shucks" charm in the monologues of the second weekend’s
Winnifred, Maria Eberline. The soprano voice which carries Eberline
through the musical numbers, however, is all her own.
Years in comedy have taught Burnett that making an audience
laugh means exuding a contagious feeling of ease.
"The first thing I said to them was, ‘I want input from you. I
want to know that you’re comfortable. Otherwise it’s not going to
look good,’" Burnett says.
Comparisons with last winter’s production, Stephen Sondheim’s
"Into the Woods," seem inevitable, given that both deliver fairy
tales with grown-up appeal. Those familiar with both attest to
Sondheim’s lyrical depth and melodic difficulty.
"(‘Into the Woods’) is one of my favorite musicals in the
world," Burnett says. "I just wept. You’re not going to weep at
this. We hope you’ll laugh. That’s the point of this. ‘Mattress’ is
froth. And you know what? There’s a place in this world for
froth."
Froth is not always easy to execute, though. The score by
Sondheim’s longtime friend Mary Rodgers may not flit madly about in
the upper registers, but "Mattress’" difficulty lies in its
staging.
"I would say that because it’s a comedy, it’s lighter, more fun.
Easy, I would not say," says senior political science student Tom
McMahon, who plays the queen’s wizardly partner in crime.
The workshop has elicited help from an impressive entourage,
from "Carol Burnett Show" collaborator Don Crichton to CBS studios
(which donated a lush new curtain, among other props), in addition
to UCLA regulars. They’ve added music previously seen only in the
TV versions of "Mattress," and Burnett says that the result is at
times more impressive than the original.
Taking a conspicuous back seat in all of this is John Hall, who
exchanged his director’s hat for the role of producer, so his
students, many of whom he has coached for years, could work with an
outsider.
"This has been a hard experience for him, letting his babies go
and work with someone else," Sanchez says.
Burnett came to UCLA assuming she would major in journalism only
to discover the school offered no such major. So she can’t help but
look back on her own student years, including her fateful choice of
a theater arts and English student. The cast is aware that the
workshop as they now know it may become increasingly fragile as the
new musical theater major (part of the theater department, as
opposed to music) gains momentum.
Here Burnett admits her administrative ignorance, but adds, "I
wish they would all merge, quite frankly."
A feeling of leaving the nest seems to pervade Schoenberg as
professionals and students mill about the cushioned seats, mingling
and exchanging notes during a crowded dress rehearsal. Prince
Dauntless escapes his mother’s dominion. Winnifred ventures from
her cherished swampy homeland to seek a future. And cast members,
many on the brink of graduation, know that the two weekend run is
something of an audition itself.
"You never know who’s sitting in the audience," Shapiro says.
"(Burnett) has all of these friends in the biz, and all it takes is
for one person to go, ‘Hey, why don’t you come and do this bit for
us on this show?’ It could start your career."
THEATER: "Once Upon a Mattress" runs through March 7 at
Schoenberg Hall. Tickets are $15, $8 for students. Call (310)
825-2101.
Photos by UCLA Arts and Architecture
Carol Burnett is directing the Musical Theater Workshop
production of "Once Upon a Mattress."
The second cast of "Once Upon a Mattress" will be performing
through March 7 at Schoenberg Hall.
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