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THEATER

Ovation nominations announced; well, mostly

"The Woman in Black," "Anything Goes" and "Animal Farm" are ahead in the race, but a computer glitch has slowed a complete rundown.

By Don Shirley

Times Staff Writer

September 17 2003

"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.