Video: Enjoy highlights from the 2007 Kelly Awards Click image to view video.

At Saturday's 17th annual Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musicals, the awards for best musical at the three budget levels were won by South Park's "Jesus Christ Superstar," Winchester Thurston's "Urinetown" and Pine-Richland's "Cats." The latter two led all schools with four and six awards, respectively.

But the biggest winner was the audience that jammed the Benedum Center to be entertained by rousing excerpts from the 10 musicals nominated as the best, selected from 30 participating Allegheny County schools.

The evening's very first excerpt, Pine-Richland's "Jellicle Cats," set a very high standard, featuring a front line of dancers seemingly ready for college musicals. And the first half of the evening ended with the Act 1 finale of Winchester Thurston's cleverly parodic "Urinetown," which mocked the very idea of an Act 1 finale and ended with a joking reference to intermission.

Also outstanding were the ensemble energy of Chartiers Valley's "The Rhythm of Life" number from "Sweet Charity," North Hills' tapping title number from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and the rich vocal skills of another Act 1 finale, Woodland Hills' from "Les Miserables."

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Pine-Richland students perform "Cats" in the 17th Annual Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theater at the Benedum Center on Saturday. Pine-Richland won six awards. Click photo for larger image. Complete listing: 2007 Kelly Award winners 2007 Kelly Award nominees

The most unusual excerpt was St. Joseph's "Almost Spring" from "A Year with Frog & Toad," a show hardly ever seen in high schools but, based on this, deserving of being seen more. The remaining excerpts came from "42nd Street," "The Wizard of Oz," "Pippin" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," adding up to a colorful mini-sampler and an eye-popping showcase of high school performing talent.

You could see the effect on the media people and sponsors' representatives who gave out the awards, many of whom hadn't seen the Kelly Awards before. The chain-reaction of their surprise culminated in Jeff Calhoun, Broadway director/choreographer, who remembered that the American musical was said to be dying when he graduated from Richland High School in the '70s, but declared this evening evidence that its future was in very good hands.

In all, thirty Allegheny County schools competed. Evaluating the participating shows was a panel of 26 judges -- arts professionals, educators and critics. The show was directed by Kiesha Lalama-White, with CLO executive producer Van Kaplan as emcee. Cosponsor with CLO was the University of Pittsburgh.

Four students from participating schools were selected by audition to receive college scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $20,000 to study performance or stagecraft. Three of this year's winners will attend Point Park University.

The evening began with the traditional video review of high points from Gene Kelly's career, ending with the famous number from "Singin' in the Rain."

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette In Winchester Thurston's "Urinetown," Officer Lockstock (with bullhorn) and Caldwell Cladwell confront Bobby Strong, Little Sally and other rebels. G. Michael D'Emilio (Lockstock) won the Kelly Award for supporting actor; Connor Mrozowski (Bobby) was nominated as lead actor. Click photo for larger image.

Other performance segments included CLO Academy students doing a number from "High School Musical," the show the CLO has chosen to open its season this week, and the traditional finale, music director Michael Moricz's "Eyes on the Goal," sung by two students from each of the 30 participating schools.

A recent innovation has the six nominees for both best actor and best actress collaborating on a medley of snippets from their respective shows and singing backup for each other, which creates some entertaining juxtapositions of characters from different theatrical worlds.

The students winners generally kept their thank-yous refreshingly gracious and brief. In accepting the Kelly for costumes, a student from Pine-Richland talked about getting guys to learn to knit leg-warmers and said, "the hardest thing was talking 56 high school students into wearing full-body leotards."

In accepting the Kelly for direction, a Winchester Thurston student aptly quoted artist Willem de Kooning, who said that art does not seek to impose order on the chaos of experience but to discover the order in ourselves -- as their adult leaders had helped them do.

The evening's concluding homily came from Mr. Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, back to participate for the eighth year. Glamorous as ever, this year in a shimmering dark chocolate-colored sheath topped with milk chocolate froth, she drew on her own experience to tell students that when you most want to turn back, you should stride forward.