Two world premieres - People's Light & Theatre's musical rethinking of Cinderella and the Arden Theatre's Something Intangible, about two stressed-out Hollywood brothers - were named outstanding musical and play last night at the 15th annual Barrymore Awards, the region's professional theater honors.

The top awards point to Philadelphia's continuing growth as a laboratory for new stage work, which "speaks to the sophistication of both our theater companies and our audiences," Margie Salvante, head of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, said last night at a ceremony at Walnut Street Theatre. The Alliance sponsors the awards.

"Philadelphia's reputation as a vibrant birthplace of new plays is continuing to grow," she said of a theater community with more than 40 professional companies that produced dozens of new plays last season. Salvante thanked the Walnut for hosting the awards and acknowledged the theater's 200-year history during an evening whose theme was the city's theatrical past, which began on a Pine Street stage in 1754.

Both Cinderella and Something Intangible had led the list of nominees for the Barrymores, with 13 each in various categories.

Something Intangible swept, winning seven awards, including an outstanding new play honor for the prolific Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham, whose work has debuted at the Arden and other companies over the years.

Other awards for the play went to the Arden's producing artistic director, Terrence J. Nolen, for his direction; Ian Merrill Peakes, who won best actor in a play for his performance as the frantic, driven, creative brother in a Hollywood studio based very loosely on Disney; James Kronzer, who took honors for his set; F. Mitchell Dana for lighting; and Rosemarie E. McKelvey for costumes.

The Arden won an eighth award last night - making it the theater company most cited - for Mary Martello as best supporting actress in a musical, in last fall's Candide.

"Thanks, everybody, for supporting . . . the creative life that makes this city hum," she told the ebullient crowd.

Cinderella, the family holiday show at People's Light, is an original panto - a sometimes rowdy British comedy form that invites audiences to respond as the show plays out. The musical was the company's fifth panto developed from scratch, in what's become a holiday tradition at the Malvern theater.

The panto's four awards included one for Pete Pryor as best director of a musical, another to Michael Ogborn for his original music, and an award to the entire cast for outstanding musical ensemble.

The outstanding play ensemble award went to the Wilma Theater's cast of Scorched, a drama that examines the ways generations pass on love and revenge in an unnamed Mideast country. Scorched also won for Janis Dardaris as supporting actress in a play, and for Jorge Cousineau's sound design. A fourth award for a Wilma production went to Kate Eastwood Norris, best actress in a play, for her two roles in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll.

Jennie Eisenhower was the season's outstanding musical actress, for her performance caricaturing divas in Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits at the Walnut's third-floor studio. For his role as a doo-wop dreamer in 11th Hour Theatre Company's all-a cappella Avenue X, Michael Philip O'Brien won as best musical actor. The show also won for Dan Kazemi's direction of the music and for Forrest McClendon, as best musical supporting actor.

The ceremony - directed by the Theater Alliance's Karen DiLossi - was spiced with videos of theater work and nominees, and an on-stage band; the entire proceedings were signed for the hearing impaired.

The 95-minute program concluded with actor Dito van Reigersberg, in his drag persona of Martha Graham Cracker, sending the crowd on its way with a defiant rendition of "Don't Cry for Me, Philadelphia!"

He told the highly receptive audience that his peformance would "save time for me going from audition to audition."

The 800 or so attendees, many in formal wear, then strolled to a reception a few blocks away at the Ben Franklin House ballroom.

The Barrymore Awards covered 27 categories and went to winners of productions at nine theater companies. They honor a theater community that is burgeoning despite hardships in the general economy, and that has become a Philadelphia industry sustained by heavy private and corporate donations. The companies, sometimes at odds with one another on artistic matters, most recently have coordinated their efforts to counter a proposed arts tax on tickets, a key resolution in the Pennsylvania Legislature's fight to craft a budget.

The Theatre Alliance began using a new method to judge the Barrymores this season. Sixty-two voters - theater educators, administrators and artists - made nominations in August, assigning points from 1 to 100 in each category. The top point-earners became nominees. Those with the most points were announced last night.

Although the new system is less cumbersome than the earlier method, some in the theater community believe it focused on a smaller group of productions; they have begun discussions about possible refinements.

In other awards, Jered McLenigan won as best supporting actor in a play, in Prince Music Theater's It's a Wonderful Life!, played as a live radio show. Christopher Gattelli won for his choreography of Bristol Riverside Theatre's Altar Boyz. Actor Tony Danza, who is teaching English at Northeast High School for a future reality show, presented Lantern Theater with a Barrymore for its education program, Classroom Connections. Delaware Theatre Company won a collaboration award for working with the Ferris School for Boys in the production No Child . . ..