'Les Miz' tops list of Barrymore nods
The Walnut Street Theatre production of Les Misérables - one of the first reimaginings of the celebrated musical's staging since it premiered 22 years ago - received 11 nominations yesterday in various categories for this year's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, the region's professional theater honors.
The Walnut Street Theatre production of
Les Misérables
- one of the first reimaginings of the celebrated musical's staging since it premiered 22 years ago - received 11 nominations yesterday in various categories for this year's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, the region's professional theater honors.
The Walnut was one of a group of theaters given permission by British producer Cameron Mackintosh, who owns rights to the show, to restage Les Miz, the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's sprawling 1862 novel. The production, which closed Sunday after a long summer run, garnered two leading musical actor nominations, for Hugh Panaro, who played Jean Valjean, and Paul Schoeffler, as his nemesis, Javert.
Its director, Mark Clements, also was nominated.
Les Miz was followed in the nominations, announced yesterday at a news conference at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, by eight nods to the Arden Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim's dark and unusual musical, Assassins. They included one for the Arden's producing artistic director, Terry Nolen, who staged the production, and four in acting categories for Jeffrey Coon, Scott Greer, James Sugg and Mary Martello, all playing characters who kill - or try to - a president.
The Walnut and the Arden tied for the number of nominations among all plays for their companies, at 16 apiece. People's Light & Theatre Company and the Philadelphia Theatre Company followed with 12 nominations each, while Theatre Exile, Lantern Theater Company, and the Wilma Theater had eight apiece.
Karen DiLossi, the director of programs and services for the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, told a crowd filled with theater artists that "we are up 38 [eligible] shows from just two years ago, and we're only continuing to grow."
The 14th annual presentation of the Barrymores, named for the acting family and organized by the alliance, will take place at Oct. 6 at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building. The alliance has not yet named a host or hosts.
Eleven judges made the nominations from choices given them by 48 nominators; the nominators include people who work in various aspects of theater in the region as well as audience members. Between now and the ceremony, the judges will select the winners.
The nominators considered entries by 41 participating companies (40 are professional; the 41st is Villanova's theater program) - 134 productions in all since the season began last fall.
The judges determined the winner in one category, announced yesterday: A lifetime achievement award goes to Dolly Beechman Schnall, a writer and director who went on to teach theater and establish a theater scholarship at the University of the Arts and a lecture and workshop fund at Temple University, where she had earned a fine arts master's. Schnall has been a board member of many theaters, including 1812 Productions, Prince Music Theater, and the Wilma, Walnut Street and Arden companies.
The five plays announced yesterday as best-production nominees are InterAct Theatre Company's regional premiere of Frozen, about a sex offender and the aftermath of his crime; Lantern's Skylight, David Hare's play set in London, where two former lovers meet; the People's Light production of Six Characters in Search of an Author, in a new adaptation by Louis Lippa; Theatre Exile's Bug, a play by this year's best-play Tony winner, Tracy Letts; and the Wilma's staging of Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl's retelling of the Orpheus tale.
In addition to Les Miz and Assassins, the best-musical-production nominees are the 11th Hour Theatre Company's The World Goes 'Round, a revue featuring the music of John Kander and Fred Ebb; Azuka Theatre's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a show about an East German sex-changed rock goddess that also earned Dito van Reigersberg a best- actor nomination for the portrayal; and the Walnut's The Irish ... And How They Got That Way, Frank McCourt's musical history of the Irish, which the Walnut presented on its smaller Stage 3.
The five nominees for outstanding new play - works that received world premieres here - are the Arden's staging of David Davalos' Wittenberg, a comedy that puts Dr. Faustus, Martin Luther and Hamlet at the same university; Tony-winning actor Bill Irwin's take on life in The Happiness Lecture at Philadelphia Theatre Company; InterAct's House, Divided, about a family's coming together after a long separation over Mideast politics, by Larry Loebell; Lippa's adaptation of Six Characters for People's Light; and People's Light's Getting Near to Baby by Y York, about children tossed into a trying circumstance.
Locally based actors Joliet Harris and Harry Philibosian emceed the nomination announcement yesterday.
For a complete list of the Barrymore winners, go to http://go.philly.com/barrymore08.EndText
Top Barrymore Nominees
Plays
Production
Frozen (InterAct Theatre Company)
Skylight (Lantern Theater Company)
Six Characteres in Search of an Author (People's Light & Theatre Company)
Bug (Theatre Exile)
Eurydice (Wilma Theater)
Direction
Dan Kern for Skylight (Lantern Theater Company)
Whit MacLaughlin for Frozen (InterAct Theatre Company)
Ken Marini for Six Characters in Search of an Author (People's Light & Theatre Company)
Matt Pfeiffer for Bug (Theatre Exile)
Blanka Zizka for Eurydice (Wilma Theater)
Leading Actor
Chris Faith in Grace (Luna Theater Company)
Kes Khemnu in The Piano Lesson (Arden Theatre Company)
Jeb Kreager in Frozen (InterAct Theatre Company)
Peter Pryor in Othello (Lantern Theater Company)
Matt Saunders in Bug (Theatre Exile)
Leading Actress in a Play
Kim Carson in Six Characters in Search of an Author (People's Light & Theatre Company)
Grace Gonglewski in Bug (Theatre Exile)
Mary Martello in Frozen (InterAct Theatre Company)
Genevieve Perrier in Skylight (Lantern Theater Company)
Amanda Schoonover in Mr. Marmalade (Theatre Exile)
New Play
Wittenberg, by David Davalos (Arden Theatre Company)
The Happiness Lecture, conceived by Bill Irwin (Philadelphia Theatre Company)
House, Divided, by Larry Loebell (InterAct Theatre Company)
Six Characters in Search of an Author, by Luigi Pirandello, newly translated and adapted by Louis Lippa (People's Light & Theatre Company)
Getting Near to Baby, by Y York, based on the novel by Audrey Couloumbis (People's Light & Theatre Company)
Musicals
Production
The World Goes 'Round (11th Hour Theatre Company)
Assassins (Arden Theatre Company)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Azuka Theatre)
Les Miserables (Walnut Street Theatre)
The Irish . . . And How They Got That Way (Walnut Street Theatre, Independence Studio on 3)
Direction
Mark Clements for Les Misérables (Walnut Street Theatre)
Kevin Glaccum for Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Azuka Theatre)
Terrence J. Nolen for Assassins (Arden Theatre Company)
Steve Pacek for The World Goes 'Round (11th Hour Theatre Company)
Marc Robin for Peter Pan (Walnut Street Theatre)
Leading Actor
Jeffrey Coon in Assassins (Arden Theatre Company)
Steve Luker in Dear World (Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Hugh Panaro in Les Misérables (Walnut Street Theatre)
Paul Schoeffler in Les Misérables (Walnut Street Theatre)
Dito van Reigersberg in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Azuka Theatre)
Leading Actress
Kim Carson in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Azuka Theatre)
Ann Crumb in Souvenir (Media Theatre)
Mary Gutzi in Dear World (Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Cary Michele Miller in Peter Pan (Walnut Street Theatre)
Erin Weaver in Treasure Island (People's Light & Theatre Company)
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