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‘The Comeuppance,’ ‘Poor Judge,’ win big at Barrymore Awards

The 2025 Barrymore Awards spotlighted productions from 13 regional theater companies in 21 categories.

Eric Jaffe and the 'Gay Mis' ensemble perform at the 2025 Barrymore Awards ceremony at the Temple Performing Arts Center in North Philadelphia on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The Barrymore Awards spotlight the best musicals, plays, actors, directors, and backstage creatives in the Philadelphia region.
Eric Jaffe and the 'Gay Mis' ensemble perform at the 2025 Barrymore Awards ceremony at the Temple Performing Arts Center in North Philadelphia on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The Barrymore Awards spotlight the best musicals, plays, actors, directors, and backstage creatives in the Philadelphia region.Read moreErin Blewett / For The Inquirer

The Barrymore Awards celebrated the best of Philadelphia’s regional theater Monday night at Temple Performing Arts Center, where Theatre Philadelphia spotlighted about 50 nominated productions from the 2024-25 season. Twenty-one awards were presented to 13 local companies.

The top winners were Old City’s Arden Theatre Company and Olde Kensington’s Pig Iron Theatre Company, which each took home four Barrymores. Center City’s Wilma Theater — the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award recipient — and Inis Nua Theatre Company earned three awards apiece for multiple productions.

The Wilma’s production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ The Comeuppance, a spooky-tinged millennial drama directed by Wilma co-artistic director Morgan Green, won three awards: outstanding overall production of a play, outstanding ensemble in a play, and outstanding sound design for Jordan McCree.

“The Comeuppance brings the drama of diverging politics and experiences to a microscopic, interpersonal level,” wrote Krista Mar in her Inquirer review. “No one character is a hero, as each of them wins our empathy, especially when possessed by Death, and then loses it. The play holds a mirror to the audience and makes them confront their own biases, assumptions, and judgment.”

Arden Theatre’s Intimate Apparel, a touching tale from Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage about an African American seamstress hoping for romance, won two Barrymores. Amina Robinson earned outstanding direction of a play, and David Pica, who played love interest Mr. Marks, received outstanding supporting performance in a play. Robinson has previously won two Barrymore Awards for directing a musical for The Color Purple at Theater Horizon and Once on This Island at the Arden.

Kishia Nixon, the actor behind interior designer Thalia in R. Eric Thomas’ Glitter in the Glass at Theater Exile, also won for outstanding supporting performance in a play. The Inquirer review called the new work “a nimble, nerdy, and very funny play that tries to answer some very tough questions.”

For outstanding leading performances in a play, both awards went to the stars of InterAct Theatre Company’s Rift, or White Lies. Matteo Scammell and Jered McLenigan played two brothers on opposite sides of the political spectrum and each night they alternated roles. (The Barrymores does not divide acting award categories by gender.)

In musical categories, Pig Iron Theater’s production of Poor Judge, which ran at the Wilma Theater as part of the 2024 Fringe Festival, took home three awards: outstanding overall production of a musical, outstanding media design for Mike Long, and outstanding music direction for Alex Bechtel.

The eccentric show, conceived and led by Philadelphia legend Dito van Reigersberg (aka Martha Graham Cracker), is a trippy journey through alt-rock singer Aimee Mann’s catalog, enhanced by fascinating live video taping.

Everyone in the ensemble for the September 2024 production played Aimee with delightfully weird and unexpectedly profound results. It was such a success that the Wilma is bringing it back for another run in January.

Bechtel also won the award for outstanding original music for People’s Light’s production of Peter Panto: A Musical Panto. It’s the second year in a row that the composer has been recognized for his original music; last year he won for Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Panto.

Peter Panto earned another Barrymore as well: Connor McAndrews, who played Smee, won for outstanding supporting performance in a musical, alongside actor Sevon Askew, who won in the same category for playing Benny in Arden Theatre’s RENT.

Inis Nua’s Drip, a solo comedy that ran at Fergie’s Pub, won two Barrymores recognizing director Kyle Metzger and actor Max Gallagher for outstanding leading performance in a musical. The story follows a teen who desperately wants to build a synchronized swim team but doesn’t actually know how to swim. The Inquirer review said the show was “a small bit of joy that makes a heartfelt statement through its casting and earnestness, reminding us in the final number that whoever we are, we should all ‘make, make, make a splash.’”

Also winning for leading performance in a musical was Danny Wilfred, who played Parmesan in Gay Mis, a queer parody of Les Misérables from Philly drag queen Eric Jaffe’s Jaffe St. Queer Productions. Gay Mis took home the Barrymore for outstanding ensemble in a musical as well.

The Philadelphia Award for Social Insight, which comes with a $25,000 prize, went to Esperanza Arts Center for Nichos, a world premiere about Mexican history based on interviews with immigrants in Philly and their families.

For a second year in a row, Theatre Philadelphia did not grant its F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, which spotlights up-and-coming Philadelphia actors with a $15,000 cash prize. The organization said it has been unable to grant the award after losing funding.

“The F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist was a meaningful part of our celebration of Philly theatre for many years,” said Theatre Philadelphia in a statement. “While the F. Otto Haas Award is no longer being presented, we remain deeply grateful for the years of support that made it possible and continue to honor emerging artists across the region through our ongoing recognition programs.”

See the full list of winners (bolded) below.

Outstanding Overall Production of a Play

  1. The Comeuppance — The Wilma Theater

  2. Glitter in the Glass — Theatre Exile

  3. Archduke — The Wilma Theater

  4. Rift, or White Lies — InterAct Theatre

  5. Nosejob — Lightning Rod Special

  6. Square Go — Inis Nua Theatre

  7. Intimate Apparel — Arden Theatre

Outstanding Direction of a Play

  1. Amina Robinson — Intimate Apparel, Arden Theatre

  2. Alex Burns — Cyrano de Bergerac, Quintessence Theatre Group

  3. Morgan Green — The Comeuppance, The Wilma Theater

  4. Nell Bang-Jensen — Nosejob, Lightning Rod Special

  5. James Ijames — August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Arden Theatre

  6. Kathryn MacMillan — Square Go, Inis Nua Theatre

  7. Matt Pfeiffer — Red, Theatre Exile

Outstanding Ensemble in a Play

  1. The Comeuppance — The Wilma Theater

  2. Cyrano de Bergerac — Quintessence Theatre Group

  3. Intimate Apparel — Arden Theatre

  4. A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Quintessence Theatre Group

  5. The 39 Steps — Lantern Theater

  6. Nosejob — Lightning Rod Special

  7. Cato (Remixed) — Philadelphia Artists’ Collective

Outstanding Leading Performance in a Play

  1. J Hernandez — Cyrano de Bergerac, Quintessence Theatre Group

  2. Brandi Porter — Intimate Apparel, Arden Theatre

  3. Matteo Scammell — Rift, or White Lies, InterAct Theatre

  4. Jered McLenigan — Rift, or White Lies, InterAct Theatre

  5. Jessica Johnson — The Half-God of Rainfall, The Wilma Theater

  6. Phillip Brown — American Moor, Lantern Theater

  7. Frank Jimenez — Moreno, InterAct Theatre

  8. Jessica Money — Our Town, New Light Theatre

  9. Adam Howard — Tuesdays with Morrie, Delaware Theatre Co.

  10. Karen Peakes — Much Ado About Nothing, Lantern Theater

  11. Tyler Elliot — Square Go, Inis Nua Theatre

  12. Owen Corey — Square Go, Inis Nua Theatre

  13. Suli Holum — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  14. Lee Thomas Cortopassi — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Quintessence Theatre Group

Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Play

  1. Kishia Nixon — Glitter in the Glass, Theatre Exile

  2. Jessica Johnson — Intimate Apparel, Arden Theatre

  3. Alice Yorke — Nosejob, Lightning Rod Special

  4. Dax Richardson — August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Arden Theatre

  5. Kash Goins — August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Arden Theatre

  6. Zach Valdez — Red, Theatre Exile

  7. Janis Dardaris — Cyrano de Bergerac, Quintessence Theatre Group

  8. Morgan Charéce Hall — A Raisin in the Sun, People’s Light

  9. David Pica — Intimate Apparel, Arden Theatre

  10. Jaime Maseda as Francisco — The Comeuppance, Wilma Theater

  11. Gabriel Elmore — Moreno, InterAct Theatre

  12. Kimberly S. Fairbanks — August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Arden Theatre

  13. Zoe Nebraska Feldman — The Wanderers, Lantern Theater

  14. Tyler Elliot — It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Hedgerow Theatre Company 1

Outstanding Movement/Choreography in a Play

  1. Ian Rose — Cyrano de Bergerac, Quintessence Theatre Group

  2. J. Alex Cordaro — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  3. Ontaria Kim Wilson & J Paul Nicholas — Moreno, InterAct Theatre

  4. Eli Lynn — The Comeuppance, The Wilma Theater

  5. J. Alex Cordaro — Square Go, Inis Nua Theatre

  6. Matteo Scammell — Nosejob, Lightning Rod Special

  7. Yasmine Lee — Franklin’s Key, Pig Iron Theatre

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical

  1. Penelope — Theatre Horizon

  2. Poor Judge — Pig Iron Theatre

  3. Gay Mis — Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  4. Night Side Songs — Philadelphia Theatre Co.

Outstanding Direction of a Musical

  1. Kyle Metzger — Drip, Inis Nua Theatre

  2. Eva Steinmetz — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  3. Eric Jaffe — Gay Mis, Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  4. Taibi Magar — Night Side Songs, Philadelphia Theatre Co.

Outstanding Leading Performance in a Musical

  1. Max Gallagher — Drip, Inis Nua Theatre

  2. Cookie Diorio — Kinky Boots, New Light Theatre

  3. Danny Wilfred — Gay Mis, Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  4. Eli Lynn — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  5. Dito van Reigersberg — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  6. Brooke Ishibashi — Night Side Songs, Philadelphia Theatre Co.

  7. Rachel Camp — Penelope, Theatre Horizon

  8. Eric Jaffe — Gay Mis, Jaffe St. Queer Productions

Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Musical

  1. Andrew Burton Kelly — Kiss Me, Kate!, Quintessence Theatre Group

  2. Hannah Truman — Legally Blonde, Media Theatre

  3. Phoebe Gavula — Grease, Media Theatre

  4. Rajeer Alford — Rent, Arden Theatre

  5. Sevon Askew — Rent, Arden Theatre

  6. Jenna Kuerzi — Grease, Media Theatre

  7. Connor McAndrews — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  8. Livvie Hirshfield — Legally Blonde, Media Theatre

Outstanding Choreography/Movement in a Musical

  1. Todd Underwood — Kiss Me, Kate!, Quintessence Theatre Group

  2. Melanie Cotton — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  3. Taylor J. Mitchell — Kinky Boots, New Light Theatre

  4. Christian Ryan — Legally Blonde, Media Theatre

Outstanding Music Direction

  1. Lili St. Queer — Gay Mis, Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  2. Ryan Touhey — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  3. Alex Bechtel — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre and Esperanza Arts Center

  4. Justin Yoder — Penelope, Theatre Horizon

Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical

  1. Poor Judge — Pig Iron Theatre

  2. Gay Mis — Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  3. Night Side Songs — Philadelphia Theatre Co.

  4. Peter Panto: A Musical Panto — People’s Light

Outstanding New Work

  1. Iraisa Ann Reilly — January 6: A Celebration. A Bodega Princess Remembers Tradition, Not Insurrection, Simpatico Theatre 2

  2. Eva Steinmetz & Dito van Reigersberg — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  3. Daniel & Patrick Lazour — Night Side Songs, Philadelphia Theatre Co.

  4. Jennifer Childs — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  5. Tanaquil Márquez — Nichos, Esperanza Arts Center

Outstanding Outdoor Production

  1. All’s Well — Shakespeare in Clark Park

  2. One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show — Theatre in the X

  3. Julius Caesar — Delaware Shakespeare

  4. As You Like It — Shakespeare in Clark Park

Outstanding Set Design

  1. Chris Haig — The Playboy of the Western World, Inis Nua Theatre

  2. Thom Weaver — August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Arden Theatre

  3. Matt Saunders — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  4. April Thomson — Hold These Truths, Montgomery Theater

  5. Anna Kiraly — Franklin’s Key, Pig Iron Theatre

  6. Roman Tartarowicz — Tuesdays with Morrie, Delaware Theatre Co.

  7. Misha Kachman — A Summer Day, The Wilma Theater

Outstanding Costume Design

  1. Nikki DelHomme — The Hobbit, Arden Theatre

  2. Rebecca Kanach — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  3. Marla Jurglanis — Much Ado About Nothing, Lantern Theater

  4. Vasilija Zivanic — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  5. Misha Kachman — A Summer Day, The Wilma Theater

  6. Barbara Erin Delo — The Playboy of the Western World, Inis Nua Theatre

  7. LeVonne Lindsay — The Half-God of Rainfall, The Wilma Theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design

  1. Alyssandra Docherty — Tuesdays with Morrie, Delaware Theatre Co.

  2. Thom Weaver — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  3. Minjoo Kim — The Comeuppance, The Wilma Theater

  4. Thom Weaver — Penelope, Theatre Horizon

  5. Drew Billau — Rift, or White Lies, InterAct Theatre

  6. Maria Shaplin — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  7. Amith Chandrashaker & Stoli Stolnack — Franklin’s Key, Pig Iron Theatre

Outstanding Media Design

  1. Mike Long — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  2. Jorge Cousineau — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

  3. Jorge Cousineau — Rent, Arden Theatre Company

  4. David Tennent & Joshua Higgason — Franklin’s Key, Pig Iron

  5. Kelly Colburn & Ksenya Litvak — A Summer Day, The Wilma Theater

  6. Michael Long & Kate Coots — The 39 Steps, Lantern Theater

  7. Damien Figueras — Topdog/Underdog, Passage Theatre Co.

Outstanding Sound Design

  1. Chris Sannino — Poor Judge, Pig Iron Theatre

  2. Christopher Colucci — Red, Theatre Exile

  3. Jordan McCree — The Half-God of Rainfall, The Wilma Theatre

  4. Jordan McCree — The Comeuppance, The Wilma Theater

  5. Chris Sannino — Franklin’s Key, Pig Iron Theatre

  6. Michael Kiley — A Summer Day, The Wilma Theater

  7. Yaim Chong Chia — Archduke, The Wilma Theater

Outstanding Original Music

  1. Daniel & Patrick Lazour — Night Side Songs, Philadelphia Theatre Co.

  2. Alex Bechtel — Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, People’s Light

  3. Jordan McCree — The Hobbit, Arden Theatre

  4. Lili St. Queer — Gay Mis, Jaffe St. Queer Productions

  5. Ximena Violante & Ampersan (Zindu Cano and Kevin García) — Nichos, Esperanza Arts Center

  6. Jakeya L. Sanders — Fallawayinto: Corridors of Rememory, Ninth Planet

The Philadelphia Award for Social Insight

  1. Rift, or White Lies — InterAct Theatre

  2. Young Americans — Theatre Horizon

  3. The Drag — EgoPo Classic Theater

  4. Night Side Songs — Philadelphia Theatre Co.

  5. The Half-God of Rainfall — The Wilma Theater

  6. January 6: A Celebration. A Bodega Princess Remembers Tradition, Not Insurrection — Simpatico Theatre

  7. Glitter in the Glass — Theatre Exile

  8. Nichos — Esperanza Arts Center

  9. The Playboy of the Western World — Inis Nua Theatre