‘Oliver!’ Nabs 10 Ovation Nominations

Deaf West Theatre’s first musical, “Oliver!,” set the pace in this year’s Ovation Awards nominations by receiving 10 nods, and the same company’s revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” was one of two runners-up, garnering seven nominations.

The honors were announced Monday in a ceremony at the new Burbank Center Stage, home of the Colony Theatre.

Although the awards won’t be announced until Oct. 30 at the Ahmanson Theatre, the nominations alone make 2000 the best year ever for the deaf-oriented theater company, which opened its new North Hollywood theater in March with “Streetcar,” continued in May with “Oliver!” and brought back “Streetcar” last Thursday.

The company’s “Oliver!” was double-cast in most of the leading roles, with hearing, singing actors performing alongside the deaf, signing ones.

A revival of “Dreamgirls” by the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities tied “Streetcar” with a total of seven nominations, and right behind were the Mark Taper Forum’s “Metamorphoses” and the Ahmanson Theatre’s booking of “Les Miserables.” Four shows received five nominations each: the Ahmanson’s “Amadeus,” the Taper’s “Jitney,” the revue “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA” at the Tiffany Theater and the Road Theatre Company’s “The Angels of Lemnos” at the Lankershim Arts Center.

Among theater organizations, Center Theatre Group easily won the most nods, with 18 for shows at the Taper and 18 for Ahmanson presentations.

The Ovations eligibility season was from Sept. 1, 1999, to Aug. 27, 2000, and 320 productions were registered for the competition, making it the first year with more than 300 eligible shows. The awards are sponsored by Theatre LA, an association of more than 150 theaters and producers.

The nominees:

Play/larger: “Wit,” Geffen Playhouse; “Jitney,” Mark Taper Forum; “Metamorphoses,” Mark Taper Forum; “Uncle Vanya,” Geffen Playhouse; “Amadeus,” Ahmanson Theatre.

Play/smaller: “Taking Sides,” Odyssey Theatre; “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Deaf West Theatre; “The Servant of Two Masters,” The Servant of Two Masters Company at Bergamot Station; “Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly,” Falcon Theatre; “Waiting for Godot,” Matrix Theatre.

Musical/larger: “The Boys From Syracuse,” Reprise! at Freud Playhouse; “Dreamgirls,” Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center; “Les Miserables,” Cameron Mackintosh at the Ahmanson Theatre; “Sweeney Todd,” Gold Coast Plays at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza; “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Canon Theatricals at the Henry Fonda Theatre.

Musical/smaller: “Oliver!,” Deaf West Theatre; “Stand-Up Opera,” Tiffany Theaters; “Merrily We Roll Along,” West Coast Ensemble; “Miss Desmond Behind Bars,” Savalas Productions at Court Theatre; “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA,” Tiffany Theaters.

Writing of a world premiere: Paul Mullin, “Louis Slotin Sonata”; Victor Kaufold, “The Why”; Luis Alfaro, Alma Cervantes, Sandra C. Munoz and Marisela Norte, “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pin~ata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me”; Dominic Hoffman, “Uncle Jacques’ Symphony”; Hershey Felder, “George Gershwin Alone.”

New translation/adaptation: Brian Senter, “Fathers and Sons”; Michael Franco and Richard Helweg, “The Master and Margarita”; Bob Daniels, Linda Bove and Phyllis Frelich, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Jeff Calhoun, Bob Daniels, Deanne Bray, Betsy Ford, Lisa Hermatz and Kissy Keast, “Oliver!”; Dakin Matthews, “The Liar.”

Director/musical: John Caird and Trevor Nunn, “Les Miserables”; Gerard Allessandrini, “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA”; Robert Clater, “Dreamgirls”; Gordon Hunt, “Stand-Up Opera”; Jeff Calhoun, “Oliver!”

Director/play: Beth Milles, “The Servant of Two Masters”; Mary Zimmerman, “Metamorphoses”; Deborah LaVine, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Ken Sawyer, “The Angels of Lemnos”; Derek Anson Jones, “Wit.”

Leading actor/play: Dominic Hoffman, “Uncle Jacques’ Symphony”; Charles Nelson Reilly, “Save It for the Stage, The Life of Reilly”; Ted Ronney, “The Foreigner”; William H. Bassett, “King Lear”; Leland Crooke, “Taking Sides.”

Leading actress/play: Emily Kuroda, “Straight as a Line”; Kathleen Chalfant, “Wit”; Suanne Spoke, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Megan Mullally, “Berlin Circle”; Maripat Donovan, “Late Nite Catechism.”

Leading actor/musical: Douglas Sills, “The Scarlet Pimpernel”; Kingsley Leggs, “Dreamgirls”; George McDaniel, “Oliver!”; Jeremiah Schalberg, “Crazy for You”; Michael Cerveris, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Leading actress/musical: Lea DeLaria, “The Boys From Syracuse”; B.J. Ward, “Stand-Up Opera”; Faith Prince, “James Joyce’s The Dead”; Kecia Lewis, “Dreamgirls”; Amanda McBroom, “Sweeney Todd.”

Featured actor/play: Neil Vipond, “Hamlet”; Michael Kastroff, “Immortality”; Fred Applegate, “Expecting Isabel”; Joe Hart, “The Angel of Lemnos”; Ogie Zulueta, “Cockroach Nation.”

Featured actress/play: Jo Nell Kennedy, “Monkey Grass”; Paula Pizzi, “Wit”; Brenda Ballard, “The Foreigner”; Kathryn Joosten, “The Ladies of the Corridor”; Brigid Cleary, “Expecting Isabel.”

Featured actor/musical: Michael Arnold, “Martin Guerre”; Harris Doran, “Oliver!”; Stephen Spinella, “James Joyce’s The Dead”; Troy Kotsur, “Oliver!”; Billy Porter, “Dreamgirls.”

Featured actress/musical: Tonya L. Dixon, “Dreamgirls”; Sally Ann Howes, “James Joyce’s The Dead”; Antoinette Abbamonte, “Oliver!”; Carol Kline, “Oliver!”; Marni Nixon, “James Joyce’s The Dead.”

Ensemble performance: casts of “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA,” “The servant of Two Masters,” “Jitney,” “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” “A Fairy Tale.”

Set design/larger: David Jenkins, “The Poison Tree”; David Gallo, “Jitney”; William Dudley, “Amadeus”; John Napier, “Les Miserables”; Daniel Ostling, “Metamorphoses.”

Set design/smaller: Robert A. Prior, “A Fairy Tale”; Desma Murphy, “Ballad Hunter”; Bob Steinberg, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Desma Murphy, “The Angels of Lemnos”; Thomas Buderwitz, “Against the Glass.”

Costume design/larger: Andreane Neofitou, “Les Miserables”; Mara Blumenfeld, “Metamorphoses”; Susan Hilferty, “Jitney”; William Dudley, “Amadeus”; Jane Greenwood, “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”

Costume design/smaller: Maggie Morgan, “Waiting for Godot”; Audrey Eisner, “Tonight at 8:30”; Audrey Eisner, “The Swan”; Alvin Colt, “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA”; Holly Poe Durbin, “Berlin Circle.”

Lighting design/larger: T.J. Gerckens, “Metamorphoses”; Kevin Adams, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”; David Hersey, “Les Miserables”; Scott Zielinski, “Space”; Paule Constable, “Amadeus.”

Lighting design/smaller: Geoff Korf, “An Antigone Story”; Michael Gilliam, “Oliver!”; J. Kent Inasy, “Waiting for Godot”; David Flad, “The Angels of Lemnos”; Ken Booth, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Sound design/larger: Rob Milburn, “Jitney”; Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, “Space”; Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, “Metamorphoses”; Andrew Bruce/Autograph, “Les Miserables”; Matt McKenzie, “Amadeus.”

Sound design/smaller: Way Magic, Eden’s Journal and Ken Sawyer, “The Angels of Lemnos”; Nathan Wang, “The Square”; Jef Bek and Eric Snodgrass, “Nosferatu”; Bill O’Brien, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; John Zalewski, “Berlin Circle.”

Choreography: Fred Tallaksen, “Miss Desmond Behind Bars”; Robert Clater, “Dreamgirls”; Phillip George, “Forbidden Broadway Y2K/LA”; Sha Newman, “The King and I”; Brian Paul Mendoza, “Oliver!”