TICKETHOLDER AWARDS 2007 (1 of 2)

THE 17TH ANNUAL TICKETHOLDER AWARDS, 2007 (1 OF 2)

[ Click here to check out Part 2 ]

This has been an extraordinary year for theatre in Los Angeles and, though I attended almost as many productions around town as usual, 2007 signaled a bit of a personal milestone for me as I cut back considerably writing reviews. This was originally due primarily to several excursions away from home, including several trips to Vegas on assignment and extended stays in Orlando and New Orleans, but mostly my hiatus from reviewing was a result of trying to prepare, rehearse and perform in two incredibly demanding productions simultaneously: playing Shelly “The Machine” Levene in Misty Carlisle’s visionary re-mounting of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross at the Egyptian Arena in Hollywood and alternating as the Marchesa Constance Ridgeway-Condotti, better known as the Witch of Capri, in Tennessee Williams’ seldom-produced The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, directed by the venerated Simon Levy at the Fountain. Appearing in both of these modern classic plays was a highlight for me this year, especially keeping my wits about me playing a desperate Chicago real estate huckster one night and one of the world’s wealthiest and most Fellini-esque women the next. And believe me, if it were not for the obvious lack of objectivity on my part, these two shows would certainly have had several major winners among my choices for this year’s TicketHolder Award honors.

THE TOP 10 PLAYS OF THE YEAR 2007

1. Bug, Lost Angels at Coast Playhouse

Image

2. Bleed Rail, Theatre @ Boston Court

Image

3. Beautiful Thing, Celebration Theatre

Image

4. The Car Plays, Moving Arts at the Steve Allen Theatre

Image

5. Fat Pig, Geffen Playhouse

Image

6. Yellow Face, Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum

Image

7. Tryst, Black Dahlia Theatre

Image

8. Kimberly Akimbo, Victory Theatre Center

Image

9. Pyretown, Playwrights Arena at studio/stage

Image

10. Feeding the Monkey in Hollywood, Gardner Stages

Image

RUNNERS-UP: The Bacchae, Celebration Theatre; Bitch, Indecent Exposure at the Bootleg Theatre; Defiance, Pasadena Playhouse; Distracted, CTG, Mark Taper Forum; The History Boys, CTG, Ahmanson Theatre; Krapp’s Last Tape / The Zoo Story, Deaf West; Moonlight, Lost Studio; No Man’s Land, Theatre/Theater; Out Late, Macha Theatre; The Rainmaker, Knightsbridge Theatre; Small Tragedy, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble; Twelve Angry Men, CTG, Ahmanson; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, CTG, Ahmanson; Wildboy ’74, Calamity Theatre at the Bootleg; Zorro in Hell, Ricardo Montalban Theatre

THE TOP 10 MUSICALS OF 2007

1. “13,” Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum

Image

2. Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Theatre @ Boston Court

Image

3. The Color Purple, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

Image

4. Jersey Boys, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

Image

5. Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse

Image

6. Avenue Q, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

Image

7. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Wadsworth Theatre

Image

8. George Gershwin Alone, Geffen Playhouse

Image

9. Zanna, Don’t!, West Coast Ensemble

Image

10. Bush Is Bad, NoHo Arts Center

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Mental the Musical, Edgemar Center; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare Festival/LA; Mommy! Mommy! The Musical…Musical!, Hudson Backstage


BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY, 2007

Nick Mennell, Bitch, Indecent Exposure at the Bootleg Theatre

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Bill Brochtrup, Small Tragedy, Odyssey; Tyrone Giordono, Zoo Story, Deaf West; Nathan Frizzell, Beautiful Thing, Celebration; Bill Irwin, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Ahmanson; Troy Katsur, Krapp’s Last Tape, Deaf West; Kevin Kilner, Defiance, Pasadena Playhouse; Hoon Lee, Yellow Face, Taper; Jeff Murray, No Man’s Land, Theatre/Theater; Gabriel Olds, Tryst, Black Dahlia; Mitchell Ryan, Moonlight, The Lost Studio; Michael A. Shepperd, The Bacchae, Celebration

BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Judy Jean Berns, Kimberly Akimbo, Victory Theatre Center

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Jordan Baker, Defiance, Pasadena Playhouse; Shana Gagnon, Swimming, Road; Maria Gobetti, Taking Care, Victory; Deidrie Henry, Small Tragedy, Odyssey; S. Epatha Merkerson, Come Back, Little Sheba, Kirk Douglas; Susan Priver, Twentieth Century, Lillian; Deborah Puette, Tryst, Black Dahlia; Jeanne Sakata, Master Class, East West Players; Dendrie Taylor, Pyretown, Playwrights Arena; Sarah Taylor, Beautiful Thing, Celebration; Kirsten Vangsness, Fat Pig, Geffen

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Kevin Earley, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse

Image

Right

RUNNERS-UP: Ken Barnett, Atlanta, Geffen Playhouse; Erich Bergen, Jersey Boys, Ahmanson; Rufus Bonds Jr., The Color Purple, Ahmanson; Dan Callaway, Paradise Lost, Boston Court; Michael Ingersoll, Jersey Boys, Ahmanson; Christopher Kale Jones, Jersey Boys, Ahmanson; Deven May, Jersey Boys, Ahmanson; Robert McClure, Avenue Q, Ahmanson; Geoffrey Owens, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare Festival/LA


BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Jeannette Bayardelle, The Color Purple, CTG, Ahmanson Theatre

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Merle Dandridge, Atlanta, Geffen Playhouse; Michelle Duffy, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse; Heidi Godt, Mommy! Mommy! The Musical…Musical!, Hudson Backstage; Julie Janney, Mommy! Mommy! The Musical…Musical!, Hudson Backstage; Hila Plitmann, Paradise Lost, Boston Court;  Kelli Sawyer, Avenue Q, Ahmanson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Leo Marks, Defiance, Pasadena Playhouse

Image

Left

RUNNERS-UP: Jeff Alan-Lee, Zoo Story, Deaf West; Steve Coombs, Matter of Honor, Pasadena Playhouse; Troy Katsur, Zoo Story, Deaf West; Derek Long, Hamlet, Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Tzi Ma, Yellow Face, Taper; Robert Manning Jr., Defiance, Pasadena Playhouse; Branden Morgan, No Man’s Land, Theatre/Theater; Chris Pine, Fat Pig, Geffen; Ray Porter, Distracted, Taper; Patrick Rogers, Kimberly Akimbo, Victory; Justin Schaefers, Gemini, Celebration; Tony Torn, Yellow Face, Taper; Will Watkins, Gilgamesh, Boston Court

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Cathy Carlton, Orestes Remembered: The Fury Project, Ghost Road Theatre Company at the Powerhouse

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Andrea Anders, Fat Pig, Geffen; Kathleen Bailey, Kimberly Akimbo, Victory; Stephanie Berry, Distracted, Taper; Judy Jean Berns, Out Late, Macha Theatre; Mary Cobb, As You Like It, LAWSC; Johanna Day, Distracted, Taper; Stephanie Faracy, Gemini, Celebration; Sharon Johnston, Kimberly Akimbo, Victory; Mara Marini, Bitch, Bootleg; Veronique Ory, Pterodactyls, Stella Adler; Mindy Sterling, Gemini, Celebration; Tamara Zook, Swimming, Road; Lisa Wolpe, As You Like It, LAWSC

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

John Bobek, Mental the Musical, Edgemar Center for the Arts

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Alan Blumenfeld, Man of La Mancha, A Noise Within; David Engel, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse; Gregory Franklin, Man of La Mancha, A Noise Within; Brian Joseph, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare Festival/LA; Rodolfo Nieto, Paradise Lost, Boston Court; Kevin Odekirk, Paradise Lost, Boston Court; Adam Simmons, Mental the Musical, Edgemar Center; Amir Talai, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse; Robert Yacko, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Angela Ai, Avenue Q, CTG, Ahmanson Theatre

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Felicia P. Fields, The Color Purple, Ahmanson; Miranda Frigon, Mental the Musical, Edgemar Center; Dawn Lyen Gardner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare Festival/LA; Carla Renata, Avenue Q, Ahmanson; Jackie Seiden, Jersey Boys, Ahmanson; Marie M. Wallace, Paradise Lost, Boston Court; Michelle Williams, The Color Purple, Ahmanson

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A PLAY

Bleed Rail, Theatre @ Boston Court

Image

RUNNERS-UP: The Bacchae, Celebration; Bug, Coast Playhouse; The Car Plays, Moving Arts; Feeding the Monkey in Hollywood, Gardner Stages; Heroes, Geffen; The History Boys, Ahmanson; Love Bites, Vol. V, Elephant Lab; The Rainmaker, Knightsbridge; Rounding Third, Colony; Twelve Angry Men, Ahmanson; Wildboy ’74, Bootleg; Zorro in Hell, Montalban

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A MUSICAL

“13,” CTG, Mark Taper Forum

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Bush Is Bad, NoHo Arts Center; Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse; The Color Purple, Ahmanson; The Hollywood Father/Daughter Purity Ball, Acapulco La Cienega; Jersey Boys, CTG, Ahmanson; Mental the Musical, Edgemar Center; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare Festival/LA; Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Boston Court; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Wadsworth; Zanna, Don’t!, WCE

NEW DISCOVERY 2007

Tobias Forrest, Pyretown, Playwrights Arena at studio/stage

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Anthony Cretara, Ubu the Shit!, Complex; Navaris Darson, Twentieth Century, Lillian; Emme Geissal, As You Like It, LAWSC at the Matrix; Eric Hunicutt, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Bruno Gagnon, Corteo, Cirque du Soleil at the Forum; Ian Littleworth, Invasion! The Musical, Hudson; Emily Pennington, Invasion! The Musical, Hudson; Daryl Sabara, Catskill Sonata, Matrix; Jonathan Sharp, Can-Can, Pasadena Playhouse; Michael Tauzin, The Bacchae and Beautiful Thing, Celebration; Hudson Thames, Distracted, Taper; Edward Tourier, Small Tragedy, Odyssey

BEST SOLO PERFORMANCE

Dan Guerrero, Gaytino, Latino Laugh Festival at King King

Image

RUNNERS-UP: Hershey Felder, George Gershwin Alone, Geffen; Natasha Wood, Rolling with Laughter, El Portal

 

BEST CABARET PERFORMANCE

Karen Morrow, Broadway Babies, Reprise! at the Ford Amphitheatre

Image

—–

Click here to check out Part 2 ]


TRAVIS MICHAEL HOLDER teaches acting and theatre/film history at the New York Film Academy’s west coast campus at Universal Studios. He has been writing about LA theatre since 1987, including 12 years for BackStage, a 23-year tenure as Theatre Editor for Entertainment Today, and currently for ArtsInLA.com. As an actor, he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Actor Award as Kenneth Halliwell in the west coast premiere of Nasty Little Secrets at Theatre/Theater and he has also been honored with a Drama-Logue Award as Lennie in Of Mice and Men at the Egyptian Arena, four Maddy Awards, a ReviewPlays.com Award, both NAACP and GLAAD Award nominations, and six acting nominations from LA Weekly. Regionally, he won the Inland Theatre League Award as Ken Talley in Fifth of July; three awards for his direction and performance as Dr. Dysart in Equus; was up for Washington, DC’s Helen Hayes honors as Oscar Wilde in the world premiere of Oscar & Speranza; toured as Amos “Mr. Cellophane” Hart in Chicago; and he has traveled three times to New Orleans for the annual Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, opening the fest in 2003 as Williams himself in Lament for the Moths and since returning to appear in An Ode to Tennessee and opposite Karen Kondazian as A Witch and a Bitch. Never one to suffer from typecasting, Travis’ most recent LA performance, as Rodney in The Katrina Comedy Fest, netted the cast a Best Ensemble Sage Award from ArtsInLA. He has also been seen as Wynchell in the world premiere of Moby Pomerance’s The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder and Frank in Charles Mee’s Summertime at The Boston Court Performing Arts Center, Giuseppe “The Florist” Givola in Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for Classical Theatre Lab, Ftatateeta in Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra at the Lillian, Cheswick in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Rubicon in Ventura, Pete Dye in the world premiere of Stranger at the Bootleg (LA Weekly Award nomination), Shelly Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Egyptian Arena, the Witch of Capri in Williams’ The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore at the Fountain, and Dr. Van Helsing in The House of Besarab at the Hollywood American Legion Theatre. As a writer, he has also been a frequent contributor to several national magazines and five of his plays have been produced in LA. His first, Surprise Surprise, for which he wrote the screenplay with director Jerry Turner, became a feature film with Travis playing opposite John Brotherton, Luke Eberl, Deborah Shelton and Mary Jo Catlett. His first novel, Waiting for Walk, was completed in 2005, put in a desk drawer, and the ever-slothful, ever-deluded, ever-entitled Travis can’t figure out why no one has magically found it yet and published the goddam thing. www.travismichaelholder.com

Advertisement