L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award Nominees Announced

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Production
A Little Night Music (New York City Opera production presented by Los Angeles Opera)
Caroline, or Change (Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre)
Cyrano De Bergerac (South Coast Repertory)
Exits and Entrances (Simon Levy)
Hot Mikado (Musical Theatre West)
Theater District (The Black Dahlia Theatre)

Tom McCulloh Award (Revival)
A Flea in Her Ear (A Noise Within, A Noise Within)
Awake and Sing (Shashin Desai)
Rocket to the Moon (Pacific Resident Theatre and West Coast Jewish Theatre)

Lead Performance
Viola Davis, Intimate Apparel (Roundabout Theatre Company production presented by Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum)
Mark Harelik, Cyrano de Bergerac
Morlan Higgins, Exits and Entrances
Wade McCollum, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Derek Charles Livingston)
Dakin Matthews, The Prince of L.A. (Andak Stage Company)
Tonya Pinkins, Caroline, or Change
Lenny Von Dohlen, Light

Featured Performance
Julian Acosta, Lovers and Executioners (South Coast Repertory)
Harry Groener, Chekhov X 4
(The Antaeus Company)
Arye Gross, Brooklyn Boy (South Coast Repertory in association with Manhattan Theatre Club)
William Dennis Hurley, Exits and Entrances
Anika Noni Rose, Caroline, or Change
Jeremy Sisto, Take Me Out (Geffen Playhouse at the Brentwood Theatre)
Cory Stoll, Intimate Apparel

Ensemble Performance
The cast of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant (Powerhouse Theatre Company and Les Freres Corbusier)
The cast of Book of Days
The cast of Chekhov x 4

Direction
Elina De Santos, Rocket to the Moon
Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez Elliott, A Flea In Her Ear
Scott Ellis, A Little Night Music
Jessica Kubzansky, Light (The Theatre @ Boston Court)
Stuart Rogers, Book of Days (Theatre Tribe)
Stephen Sachs, Exits and Entrances
Matt Shakman Theater District

Musical Direction
Lloyd Cooper, Hot Mikado
John DeMain, A Little Night Music
Kimberly Grigsby, Caroline, or Change
Gerald Sternbach, Company (Reprise! Broadway’s Best)
Jim Vukovich, Hairspray – Pantages Theatre

Writing
Athol Fugard, Exits and Entrances
Tom Jacobson, Ouroboros (The Other Side of the Hill Productions, Inc.)
Richard Kramer, Theater District
Tony Kushner, Caroline, or Change
Jean-Claude van Itallie, Light
Trey L. Wilson, Stage Directions (Ensemble Studio Theatre)

Adaptation
Matthew Barber, Enchanted April (Pasadena Playhouse)
Bart DeLorenzo, Hard Times (The Evidence Room)
Nicholas Saunders and Fran Dwyer, Chekhov X 4

Musical Score
David Troy Francis and Gavin Geoffrey Dillard & Robert Schrock, with additional lyrics by Mark Winkler, Jonathan Heath, and Danny Lukic, Bark! (Bark Productions)
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Hairspray
Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner, Caroline, or Change

Scenic Design
Michael Anania, A Little Night Music
D Martyn Bookwalter, Talley’s Folly (Pasadena Playhouse and Arizona Theatre Company)
Craig Siebels, Dorian (Open at the Top Productions and Denver Center Attractions)

Lighting Design
Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauser, Caroline, or Change
Michael Gilliam, 110 in the Shade (Pasadena Playhouse)
Jeremy Pivnick, Light

Costume Design
Lindsay W. Davis, A Little Night Music
Scott Lane, Dorian
Catherine Zuber, Intimate Apparel

Sound Design
David B. Marling, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Jon Weston, A Little Night Music
John Zalewski, M. Butterfly (East West Players)

Choreography
Kay Cole, Bark!
Sean McNight, Hot Mikado
Jerry Mitchell, Hairspray

Hair, Wigs, and Makeup Design
Paul Huntley (wig and hair design), Hairspray

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In addition to the awards listed above, special awards to be bestowed include the Margaret Harford Award (for sustained excellence in theater) to Dakin Matthews; the Ted Schmitt Award (for the world premiere of an outstanding new place), also to Matthews for The Prince of L.A.; the Bob Z Award (for lifetime achievement in set design) to Tom Buderwitz; the Angstrom Award (for lifetime achievement in lighting design) to Steven Young; the Natalie Schafer Award (for an emerging comic actress) to Kirsten Vangsness; the Polly Warfield Award (for an excellent season or year in a small-to-mid-sized theater) to The Black Dahlia Theatre; and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Center Theatre Group artistic director Gordon Davidson.

All tickets for the March 21 awards ceremony are priced at $35 and may be purchased by phoning 818-754-4785.