Wednesday, February 5, 1997
The annual Carol Burnett Awards are a gateway to the world of
professional musical theater for many UCLA
performers.By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
The story behind the Carol Burnett Awards is somewhat of a
legend among aspiring performers.
According to John Hall, a professor who directs the show and
competition, someone spotted Carol Burnett’s talent while she was a
student at UCLA and gave her $1,000 to try her skills in New York.
The benefactor asked to remain anonymous but suggested she repay
the favor one day if she could.
For several students in UCLA’s musical theater workshop class,
that legend became a reality Monday night in Schoenberg Hall.
Students performed excerpts from musical comedies as they vied for
up to $1,000 in prize money, culminating a quarter-long effort to
fine-tune their theatrical skills.
In existence now for close to 15 years, the event has given a
start to individuals who currently tour the country with "Miss
Saigon" and "Les Miserables," among other Broadway sensations. This
year’s winners seem no exception to that red-curtain lineage. In
the female category, Melissa Lyons stole first place, followed in
second by Karen Anne Daniels. In the male category, there was a tie
for first place between Tom Lenk and Patrick Bell, and second prize
was awarded to Adam Harrington.
"You select a theme based on what your special gift is," Juan
Garcia, contestant and fourth-year English student, says of the
process. "You then work with the director, vocal coach and
choreographer. The awards show is almost like a midterm where
you’re graded on your progress and growth and how hard you’re
working. More importantly, it helps to understand what skills you
have and how you market them."
In the past, Garcia has nabbed second place, then worth $750
prize. This year, that award passed into different hands, though
Garcia’s representation of an anthropology student seeking out a
lost tribe for a thesis paper had the crowd in hysterics. Assisting
him in his performance was Lenk, this year’s first-place
winner.
"I might use the money to join the screen acting guild so I can
audition for union jobs," Lenk muses. "Right now, I’m waiting to
hear on my call back to the musical ‘Rent.’ I got a fourth
call-back. If I get the part, I’ll take a quarter off."
Lenk’s success on the audition stage comes as no surprise, just
as his earning first prize left no one shocked. He sang "Fatty"
from Gary Udell’s play "Angel," a serenade to an inflatable doll.
Wearing thick, black-rimmed ’50s glasses and Converse sneaker tap
shoes, he danced the evening away until his nerdy female neighbor
appeared in a display of exuberant dork-love nervousness. The two
ended the scene on their way to a Taco Bell date, but not until
Lenk had the opportunity to sing "Real Live Girl" from the musical
"All American" by Strouse and Adams. As a junior transfer from
Moorepark College, the theater arts student appears do be well on
his way to a bright and shiny future.
"I got a bit part in a new movie called ‘Boogie Nights,’" Lenk
says timidly. "It has Marky Mark and Burt Reynolds in it. I get a
one-liner. I say, ‘Hi  I’m Tommy.’ I’ll have to see if it got
in the movie or ended up on the cutting room floor."
The other half of the first-prize money went to a less comedic
but equally poignant performance. Patrick Bell’s stirring rendition
of Stephen Sondheim’s "The Ballad of Booth" from the musical
"Assassins" captivated every parent and friend in the audience.
Playing both the roles of John Wilkes Booth and the tale’s
narrator, Bell belted out line after moving line of the melancholy
Southern tune. However, the first-year electrical engineering
student still maintains a sense of humor.
"I have no idea what I’m going to do with the money," Bell says.
"Go out to dinner, I guess. Maybe at Burger King."
Likewise, first-place winner Melissa Lyons offers a similar
solution to her newly acquired wealth.
"I’ll pay my bills, get out of debt, and maybe buy a pair of
pants," Lyons jokes.
Lyons’s act required her character to strip off a vest, let down
her hair, and sing an octave lower in order to impress a casting
director. Beginning her performance with Kern and Hammerstein’s
stuffy "All the Things You Are," she led up to the vivacious Kander
and Ebb piece, "All That Jazz."
Similarly, second-place winner Karen Ann Daniels, a fourth-year
art history student, employed the use of two higher-range pieces,
"I Have Confidence" from Rodgers and Hammersteins’ "The Sound of
Music" and "June Is Bustin’ Out All Over" from Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s "State Fair." These numbers accentuated the gritty
sex appeal of a steamy blues song, "Miss Celie’s Blues" from "The
Color Purple."
Though both Daniels’ and Lyons’ performances proved their
stage-side prowess, many audience members wondered why the
gratingly humorous Carol Burnett-esque Devon Kelly achieved no
honors. Her crowd-pleasing portrayal of an aging Southern belle,
singing "I Was a Shoo-in" from "Subways Are For Sleeping," took
down the house. Through song and raucously horrible acting, her
character explained to her baffled young handyman why she didn’t
win a Mississippi beauty pageant years ago, providing one of the
show’s most memorable scenes.
Fortunately, the public may not have to wait long to see more of
Kelly’s work. In March, the workshop will premiere a freshly
developed children’s musical, "Penelope Saves the Nutcracker," with
music by Alan Stein and book and lyrics by UCLA alumna Dorothy
Nichols. In May, they will sink their teeth into a production of
"Flora, the Red Menace," a musical which won 17-year-old Liza
Minelli a Tony.
But despite the center-stage opportunities the competition
brings, the contestants remain down-to-earth, remembering that they
are students first. As the theater began to empty, Daniels summed
it up best by saying, "I have to go study for a midterm."
BAHMAN FARAHDEL
Juan Garcia performs in "Where Is the Tribe for Me?" from
"Bajour" by Walter Marks.