Local theater nominations a Cinderella story

Two world premieres - a musical rethinking of Cinderella, and Something Intangible, a play about two stressed-out Hollywood movie-making brothers - received 13 nominations apiece in various categories for this year's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, the region's professional theater honors.

The top nominations for two new shows underscore Philadelphia's continuing growth as a birthplace for stage work. All the nominees were announced today at a news conference at the University of the Arts by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the service organization that organizes the awards.

About a third of the artists cited have been nominated before. They are among more than 1,000 people residing in metropolitan Philadelphia and working in theater consistently here. Many have become permanent fixtures on the city's stages.

Cinderella, the family holiday show at People's Light & Theatre Company in December, is an original panto - a British form of theater that invites audience commentary and even heckling.

The show was the fifth panto developed from scratch by the Malven company, which has made them a holiday trademark. It garnered nominations for Kim Carson, who played its title role; its cast for ensemble musical acting; its director, Pete Pryor, and several stagecraft artists. Its writers, Kathryn Petersen and Michael Ogborn, were nominated for outstanding new musical.

The Arden Theatre Company's Something Intangible is the newest work by prolific Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham, who was nominated for outstanding new play. Graham's work has debuted at the Arden and other companies over the years, and Something Intangible, which he based very loosely on the Disney brothers, was a box-office performer as well as a critical success for both the play and the production.

Among its other Barrymore nominees are director Terrence J. Nolen, who is the Arden's producing artistic director; three leading actors, Ian Merrill Peakes, Scott Greer and Walter Charles, and its leading actress, Sally Mercer, and stagecrafters.

The Arden, which often tops the Barrymore nomination lists, received the most this year, 23 in all, followed by the Wilma, with 18, and People's Light and the Walnut Street Theatre, with 16 each.

Among the notable omissions were the Philadelphia Theatre Company production of Grey Gardens, the musical that recently ended a run on Broadway and looks at the descent of two relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; and Lantern Theater's galvanizing springtime production of Hamlet. Grey Gardens received one nomination, for Eric Ebbenga's music direction.

But some smaller companies were cited: Ambler's Act II Playhouse, for Danielle G. Herbert's acting in Respect: A Musical Journey of Women, held over for two full months, and Keith Conallen's acting in Flashpoint Theatre's Jump/Cut.

The top-nominated plays were followed closely by a musical and a play that each received a dozen nominations. Those were the Walnut Street Theatre's production of the iconic musical The Producers and the Wilma Theater's staging of French-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad's drama called Scorched. The play examines the ways generations pass on love as well as revenge, and is set in an unnamed Mideast country.

The Producers, which just ended a long run, was nominated for best musical production and local actor Ben Dibble received a nod for portraying one of the two lead roles, as did Marc Robin, the director. Its cast was nominated for best musical ensemble.

Scorched was nominated for best play production, along with its director Blanka Zizka, who leads the Wilma Theater, and its ensemble.

The 15th annual presentation of the Barrymores honors a burgeoning theater community that has become a Philadelphia industry sustained by heavy corporate and private donations. Barrymore winners will be announced Oct. 5 in an awards ceemony at the Walnut Street Theatre, followed by a reception nearby at the Benjamin Franklin House ballroom.

The Theatre Alliance began using a new method, less taxing for individual nominators, to judge the Barrymores this season. Sixty-two voters - theater educators and administrators as well as artists - made the nominations.

According to Karen DiLossi, the Theatre Alliance director of programs and services, a randomly selected eight voters were assigned to each of 130 shows. Each voter gave points from 1 to 100 in each category.

The top point-earners became the nominees. Those with the most points will be announced as winners in October; Theatre Alliance administrators already know who they are, and are keeping the winners secret until then.

The Alliance did announce two winners. A special recognition award will be presented to Deen Kogan and posthumously, to her husband, Jay - the founders of Society Hill Playhouse, now in its 50th year. When the Kogans opened the theater on Eighth Street near Lombard, it was the city's first professional showcase for contemporary repertoire, and a center for experimentation. In recent years, it has housed some of the city's longest runs; Menopause, the Musical, lasted four years.

This year's recipients of the Brown Martin Philadelphia Award, which recognizes plays that touch on cultural values, are the Arden, for Aaron Posner's adaptation of the late Chaim Potok's novel My Name is Asher Lev, and Interact Theatre's Little Lamb, Philadelphia playwright Michael Whistler's take on interracial and gay adoption. Both also were world premieres.

In addition to Something Intangible and Scorched, the nominees for outstanding production of a play are the Delaware Theatre Company's No Child..., a look at a woman who grapples with a tough New York public school class; Lantern Theater's The Hothouse, Harold Pinter's play about a state-run rest home where the staff is bonkers; and the Wilma Theater's staging of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, which overlays rock's evolution on that of the modern Czech Republic.

Joining Cinderella and The Producers as best musical production nominees are the 11th Hour Theatre Company's staging of the a cappella doo-wop Avenue X; the Arden's version of the tale of the young, naif Candide; and Bristol Riverside Theatre's take on the boy-band sendup, Altar Boyz. Nolen, Dibble and Greer all received second nominations for Candide.

Nominees for the $10,000 emerging artist award are actress Karla Moses Baxter, composer Troy Herion, actress/director Sarah Sanford, playwright Nicholas Wardigo and costume designer Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind.