'Ragtime' Beats All

By DON SHIRLEY

Nov. 19, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

“Ragtime” ruled the roost at Theatre LA’s Ovation Awards ceremony Monday, snagging eight of L.A. theater’s top peer-judged honors--more than any other show has won since the competitive Ovations began four years ago.

The big musical about cultures clashing in turn-of-the-century America was a ubiquitous presence throughout the evening, not only in its 16 nominations and the awards themselves but in the fact that they were presented from the show’s set at the Shubert Theatre.

Despite the show’s trophies, the biggest surprise of the evening was one award that “Ragtime” didn’t get. An absent Ned Beatty was named best actor in a musical for “Show Boat”--one of three honors for the touring version of the classic that stopped at the Ahmanson Theatre. Beatty beat “Ragtime’s” Brian Stokes Mitchell, who’s often mentioned as a favorite for next year’s Tony.

The musical actress award went to “Ragtime’s “ Marcia Mitzman Gaven. Another “Ragtime” star, John Rubinstein, served as the ceremony’s co-host with Joanna Gleason and also was nominated for the award that Beatty won.

Livent, the company that produced both “Ragtime” and “Show Boat,” took a total of 11 awards home to Toronto, including one from every category in which its shows were nominated. Livent Chairman Garth Drabinsky, accepting the best larger musical for “Ragtime,” began his remarks with, “It was the right decision to give the American premiere of ‘Ragtime’ to Los Angeles.”

In the sub-100-seat theater arena, the top winner was the Indian-flavored “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” presented by Farthest Steppe Productions at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood. It garnered four awards, including best play in a smaller theater. The only other winner of more than one award in the smaller arena was the Actors’ Gang’s “Euphoria,” which received two, including best smaller musical.

“The Heiress” was named best play in a larger theater but received no other awards. Its Tony-winning star Cherry Jones was overlooked in favor of Suanne Spoke of “David’s Mother” at the little Company of Angels.

Indeed, nominees from smaller theater defeated those from big houses in all but two of the nonmusical acting, writing and directing categories (production and design awards are categorized by theater size). L.A. County’s most prominent nonprofit theaters--the Mark Taper Forum, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Geffen Playhouse--won not a single award.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and Geffen Playhouse producing director Gilbert Cates received special awards. Speaking briefly, Sondheim said, “The real thrill of this evening is the sense of community in this auditorium. I wish we had it in New York.”

After acknowledging his colleagues at the Geffen, Cates discussed “an environment that’s hostile” to theater, citing the federal government, show-off reviewers, newspapers and magazines and “audiences who are encouraged to look for events of marginal importance” as contributors to this environment.

The winners:

* Play/Larger: “The Heiress,” Ahmanson Theatre

* Play/Smaller: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Stella Adler Theatre

* Musical/Larger: “Ragtime,” Shubert Theatre

* Musical/Smaller: “Euphoria,” Actors’ Gang

* Writing of a World Premiere: Kathy Buckley, “Don’t Buck With Me!”

* New Translation/Adaptation: Robert Cornthwaite, “So It Is . . . If So It Seems to You”

* Director/Musical: Frank Galati, “Ragtime”

* Director/Play: Michael Michetti, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

* Leading Actor/Play: Bill Campbell, “Fortinbras”

* Leading Actress/Play: Suanne Spoke, “David’s Mother”

* Leading Actor/Musical: Ned Beatty, “Show Boat”