Outstanding Performer in a Musical

KIARA BROWN-CLARK is an AEA/SAG-AFTRA Choreographer, Producer, Dancer, Singer, Actress, and Educator who hails from NYC. She holds a M.F.A. in Dance & Choreography with a concentration in Musical Theatre from Smith College, and a B.F.A. in International Relations from SUNY Geneseo. As a performer & choreographer, she has worked extensively in NYC and throughout the world, choreographing over 200 professional projects throughout her career! Notable credits include Disney’s Mary Poppins, Dreamgirls: The 25th Anniversary with Jennifer Holliday, Once on This Island, The Wiz, Cabaret, Hair, Violet, A Chorus Line, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Kiara is also making magic with the team at Disney Theatrical Group: Coordinator of Education & Audience Engagement, The Disney Musicals in Schools (DMIS) Program, and Choreographer on several licensing and creative development projects. Recent honors include a nomination into Thee Broadway League’s ‘23-‘24 Rising Stars Fellowship.

BAAYORK LEE has performed in a dozen original Broadway shows. She created the role of Connie in A Chorus Line while continuing the legacy of Michael Bennett directing companies around the world,most recently Antonio Banderas company in Spain. She has directed King and I, South Pacific, Cinderella (R&H), Porgy and Bess, Carmen Jones, Jesus Christ Superstar, Barnum, Gypsy, Cats, Beauty and the Beast and others. She also directed the 2021 Wicked in Concert for PBS. Her choreography credits include Miss Saigon, Mack and Mabel and for Arena Stage in Washington, DC, Animal Crackers, South Pacific (Helen Hayes nom2021), Coconuts, and Camelot. Lee founded National Asian Artists Project and her vision includes educating, cultivating, and stimulating audiences and artists of Asiandescent. She is the recipient of many awards including the Isabelle Stevens Tony Award, Paul Robeson Award from Actors Equity Association, the Asian Woman Warrior Award for Lifetime Achievement from Columbia College, Asian Pacific American Heritage Association Achievement In Arts Award, the Dynamic Achiever Award from OCA Westchester, Chen Dance Center Artist Award, Arena Stage American Artist Award, and Actors Fund for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Dance.

TOM VIERTEL and his partners, Richard Frankel, Marc Routh and Steve Baruch have produced and general managed plays and musicals for the past 39 years, including many award-winning original Broadway productions including The Producers; Hairspray; Young Frankenstein; Smokey Joe’s Café; Angels in America; Penn & Teller; Love Letters, Swing!; The Weir; The Encounter and The Parisian Woman starring Uma Thurman. Their revivals on Broadway include Gypsy with Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti, the Old Vic’s The Norman Conquests, A Little Night Music with Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury and later Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch, John Doyle’s Sweeney Todd with Patti LuPone and Company with Raul Esparza; A Funny Thing… Forum with Nathan Lane and later Whoopi Goldberg, and the first-ever Broadway revivals of The Sound of Music and Little Shop of Horrors. Notable Off-Broadway premieres include Driving Miss Daisy; Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune; The Cocktail Hour; Oleanna; Jeffrey; Marvin’s Room; Stomp; and Song of Singapore, which eventually served as the template for the acclaimed Broadway-themed nightclub/cabaret 54 Below, presenting over 650 performances each year. They are currently the Executive Producers of Back to The Future: The Musical on Broadway, now playing at the Winter Garden Theatre while continuing its highly successful London run. Tom is the Chairman of the Board of The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, America’s foremost development center for new theatrical work.