Center Theatre Group leads in Ovation nods

The swan song season for Center Theatre Group’s now-retired founding artistic director Gordon Davidson yielded 24 Ovation Award nominations on Tuesday -- twice as many as the total for any other theater company.

Fullerton Civic Light Opera produced the most nominated production in the race for the annual peer-judged theater honors. Its revival of “Miss Saigon” picked up a dozen nominations.

The runner-up show among the nominees was the McCoy Rigby Entertainment revival of “Peter Pan” starring Cathy Rigby at La Mirada Theatre. Tied with seven nominations each were a production of the “Songs for a New World” revue at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura and a musical version of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” by Open at the Top Productions, in a small North Hollywood theater.

The top-scoring CTG production was the musical “Caroline, or Change,” at the Ahmanson Theatre, with six nominations. Also snagging six was the local premiere of Tracy Letts’ “Killer Joe,” by the Lost Angels Theatre Company at a small theater in Hollywood.

This year’s competition attracted a record number of contending productions -- 409, all of which had to open between Sept. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2005, run for at least 12 performances and attract at least eight of the 232 voters to qualify for awards. The awards, in 29 categories, are sponsored by LA Stage Alliance.

Two noncompetitive awards also were announced Tuesday: Shakespeare Festival/LA will receive the Community Outreach Award; Luis Alfaro, a playwright who recently lost his job running CTG’s play development programs, will receive the James A. Doolittle Award for Leadership in Theatre.

The awards will be presented at a Nov. 14 ceremony in downtown L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre.

The list of nominees can be found at www.calendarlive.com/theatrela.