Ovation Award nominees announced

“The Woman in Black,” “Anything Goes” and “Animal Farm” are ahead in the race for the annual Ovation Awards, L.A.’s peer-judged theater awards. Each of the three shows received seven nominations -- so far.

But the total nomination figures aren’t complete. Costume design nominations weren’t announced Tuesday with the others. Because of a computer glitch, voters are being asked to resend their costume votes.

Larry Aldrich, vice chair of the LA Stage Alliance, which sponsors the Ovations, said the process probably will take two weeks. “We need to trust that the voters won’t change their votes,” he said, adding that the group’s 197 voters keep copies of the scores they sent on each show.

This year’s nominations are much more evenly distributed than last year’s, when “Big River” took 11 and four other productions took eight apiece.

This year’s leaders are the Road Theatre’s production of the suspense thriller “The Woman in Black” at its North Hollywood theater, a Reprise! revival of the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes” at the UCLA Freud Playhouse, and the Son of Semele rendition of the musical version of “Animal Farm,” which was seen at the McCadden Place Theatre in Hollywood.

Tied with six nods apiece are the Civic Light Opera of South Bay revival of the musical “Ragtime,” August Wilson’s new play “Gem of the Ocean” at downtown L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum and Bryan Davidson’s new play “War Music,” which was co-produced by Playwrights’ Arena and the Echo Theatre at downtown’s Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Close behind, with five nominations apiece, are Pasadena Playhouse’s “Plaid Tidings,” Reprise!’s “She Loves Me” and “La Gioconda,” a [Collective] and Stages production at Stages in Hollywood.

Center Theatre Group shows received 23 nominations, more than any other producing organization.

Although Ovations usually are awarded after the winning productions have closed, eliminating any chance of influence on box office, three of this year’s most-nominated shows will be revived soon: “The Woman in Black” at the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard, “Plaid Tidings” at Pasadena Playhouse and “War Music” at the Geffen Playhouse.

Among the oddities in this year’s nominations: David Engel received an acting nod for playing Bobby Child in “Crazy for You,” the same role that won him an Ovation last year -- but he performed with two different companies, this season’s Musical Theatre West and last season’s Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. “Late Nite Catechism” and its creator/star Maripat Donovan received nominations for its run this year at La Mirada Theatre, though the same show has run in several other local theaters, and Donovan was also nominated for performing the role in 2000.

This year’s winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. on Nov. 23. More than 380 productions that were presented during the period of September 2002 through August 2003 contended for this year’s Ovations.

Following is a partial list of nominees; the complete list can be found at www.calendar live.com/theatrela.

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Play, larger theaters: “Toys in the Attic,” Colony Theatre; “Agnes of God,” International City Theatre; “Late Nite Catechism,” La Mirada Theatre; “Morning’s at Seven,” Ahmanson Theatre; “The King Stag,” A Noise Within

Play, smaller theaters: “An Evening With Marlene,” Theatre East; “The Hostage,” Alliance Repertory Company; “The Island,” Camelot Artists Productions; “The Woman in Black,” Road Theatre Company; “Times Like These,” Padua Playwrights Productions

Musical, larger theaters: “Anything Goes,” Reprise!; “Plaid Tidings,” Pasadena Playhouse; “Ragtime,” Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities; “She Loves Me,” Reprise!; “Sweeney Todd,” Performance Riverside

Musical, smaller theaters: “Animal Farm,” Son of Semele Ensemble; “Dracula, A Musical Nightmare,” Sacred Fools Theater Company; “Nuncrackers,” Fremont Centre Theatre; “Songs for a New World,” Playwrights’ Arena; “Sunday in the Park With George,” West Coast Ensemble

World premiere play: August Wilson, “Gem of the Ocean”; Culture Clash, “Chavez Ravine”; Evelina Fernandez, “Dementia”; Levy Lee Simon, “Dessalines (The Heart) Blood & Liberation;” Randy Schulman, “La Gioconda”; Del Shores, “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife”; Bryan Davidson, “War Music”

World premiere musical: Troubadour Theatre Company, “A Christmas Carole King”; Caroline Sherman and Bob Hull, “Empire”; James Webber, David Church, Joe Patrick Ward, “Judy’s Scary Little Christmas”; Mitzie and Ken Welch, “Songs My Mother Taught Me”; Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu, “The Big Voice: God or Merman?”

Touring production: “42nd Street,” “Aga-Boom,” “Elaine Stritch at Liberty”; “The Producers”; “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”

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The following list of award categories appeared only on the L.A. Times web site; it did not appear in the paper.

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Director, play: Marion McClinton, “Gem of the Ocean”; Charles Haid, “Belfast Blues”; Randy Schulman, “La Gioconda”; Tom Troupe, “The Gin Game”; Del Shores, “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife”; Ken Sawyer, “The Woman in Black”; Jessica Kubzansky, “War Music”

Director, musical: Matt Walker, “A Christmas Carole King”; Edgar Landa, “Animal Farm”; Stuart Ross, “Plaid Tidings”; Robert Clater, “Ragtime”; Gordon Hunt, “She Loves Me”

Lead actor, play: Seamus Dever, “A Clockwork Orange”; David Paladino, “The Island”; Ken Rosier, “The Island”; Robertson Dean, “The Real Thing”; Paul Witten, “The Woman in Black”; Joe Hart, “The Woman in Black”; Norbert Weisser, “Times Like These”

Lead actress, play: Linda Purl, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Madison Dunaway, “Agnes of God”; Cissy Conner, “An Evening With Marlene”; Maripat Donovan, “Late Nite Catechism”; Zilah Mendoza, “Living Out”; Beth Grant, “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife”; Laurie O’Brien, “Times Like These”

Lead actor, musical: David Engel, “Crazy For You”; Carl Anderson, “Jesus Christ Superstar”; Kingsley Leggs, “Ragtime”; Eric Anderson, “Ragtime”; Norman Large, “Sweeney Todd”; Jim Brochu, “The Big Voice: God or Merman?”

Lead actress, musical: Rachel York, “Anything Goes”; Tami Tappan Damiano, “Crazy For You”; Connie Champagne, “Judy’s Scary Little Christmas”; Carolee Carmello, “On the Twentieth Century”; Carol Dennis, “Raisin”

Featured actor, play: Michael McElroy, “Blue”; James Farentino, “Boy Gets Girl”; Gene Lythgow, “Light Up the Sky”; Bo Foxworth, “Measure for Measure”; Tim Murphy, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”

Featured actress, play: Mary Gregory, “Light Up the Sky”; Frances Sternhagen, “Morning’s at Seven”; Juanita Jennings, “Slide Glide the Slippery Slope”; Jill Hill, “The King Stag”; Nancy Linehan Charles, “Toys in the Attic”

Featured actor, musical: Jason Graae, “Anything Goes”; Larry Cedar, “Anything Goes”; Robert Picardo, “On the Twentieth Century”; Stan Chandler, “Ragtime”; Larry Cedar, “She Loves Me”

Featured actress, musical: Anastasia Barzee, “Anything Goes”; Sandy Mulvihill, “Empire”; Sally Struthers, “Mame”; Kaitlin Hopkins, “She Loves Me”; Carol Swarbrick, “The Wizard of Oz”

Solo performance: Geraldine Hughes, “Belfast Blues”; Alec Mapa, “Drama!”; Alec Mapa, “I Remember Mapa”; John Leguizamo, “Sexaholix”; Grant Kramer, “Shadowboxing”

Ensemble performance: casts of “Animal Farm” (the Son of Semele version), “Gem of the Ocean,” “Dementia,” “La Gioconda,” “Plaid Tidings,” “The Hostage,” “War Music”

Choreographer: Anthony Powell, “Animal Farm”; Dan Mojica, “Anything Goes”; Jamie Rocco, “Crazy For You”; Sergio Trujillo, “Empire”; Lesia Kaye, “Ragtime”

Musical direction: Gerald Sternbach, “Anything Goes”; Gerald Sternbach, “On the Twentieth Century”; David Snyder, “Plaid Tidings”; Gerald Sternbach, “She Loves Me”; Colin R. Freeman, “Songs My Mother Taught Me”

Set design, larger theaters: David Gallo, “Gem of the Ocean”; John Lee Beatty, “Morning’s at Seven”; John Arnone, “Rose and Walsh”; David Jenkins, “Ten Unknowns”; Tom Buderwitz, “Toys in the Attic”; Tom Buderwitz, “Under the Blue Sky”

Set design, smaller theaters: David Edwards, “Animal Farm”; James Eric, “A Clockwork Orange”; Justin Huen and Jon Lawrence Rivera, “Songs for a New World”; Matthew C. Jacobs, “The Hostage”; John Williams, “The Million Bells of Ocean”; Desma Murphy, “The Woman in Black”; Susan Gratch, “War Music”

Lighting design, larger theaters: Donald Holder, “Gem of the Ocean”; Daniel Ionazzi, “Boy Gets Girl”; Kwang-Sub Kim, “Dementia”; Jeremy Pivnick, “Gretty Good Time”; Brian MacDevitt, “Morning’s at Seven”; Kevin Adams, “Sexaholix”

Lighting design, smaller theaters: Chris Greulach, “Animal Farm”; Jeremy Pivnick, “A Clockwork Orange”; Rand Ryan, Drama!”; Frederick Wenzlaff, “La Gioconda”; Josh Bradford, “The Good Thief”; Robert Smith, “The Woman in Black”; Jeremy Pivnick, “War Music”

Sound design, larger theaters: Karyl Lynn Burns and Steven Cahill, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Dan Moses Schreier, “Gem of the Ocean”; Dan Moses Schreier, “Chavez Ravine”; Jonathan Snipes, “Dementia”; Frederick W. Boot, “Plaid Tidings”; T. Richard Fitzgerald, “Sexaholix”

Sound design, smaller theaters: Al Sgro, “Animal Farm”; Rick Sparks, “A Clockwork Orange”; Drew Dalzell, “As I Lay Dying”; Randy Schulman and DE3, “La Gioconda”; David B. Marling and Ken Sawyer, “The Woman in Black”; Drew Dalzell and Joe Patrick Ward, “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife”; John Zalewski, “War Music”

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