2021 Ovation Award Nominees

The LA Stage Alliance has announced the nominees for its 2021 Ovation Awards, its 31st annual prizes, honoring regional productions in the 2019-20 season. There were 137 shows registered from 36 organizations, resulting in 174 artists being evaluated and 40 shows being recommended. Due to the pandemic, the eligibility period ran from Sept. 1, 2019, through Mar. 31, 2020. The Annenberg Center production of the play Frankenstein received the most nominations, with 12 nods, while the Rockwell Musical Parodies production of It is the most-nominated musical, with 10 nods.

The nominees for Best Production of a Musical (Intimate Theatre) are Fun Home (Chance Theater), Miracle on 34th Street (Actors Co-Op), and Salvage (Tim Alderson Prods.). Those up for Best Production of a Musical (Large Theatre) are Little Shop of Horrors (Pasadena Playhouse), Love, Actually Live! (Annenberg Center), and Stephen King’s It (Rockwell Table & Stage). Among those named for Best Presented Production is Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Center Theatre Group).

Among the Annenberg Frankenstein nods is a nomination for Sebastian Peters-Lazaro’s choreography, while composer Robert Oriol received an honor award for his music to Frankenstein at A Noise Within. In addition to best production, It’s other nominations include best acting ensemble, choreography (Mallory Butcher), music direction (Gregory Nabours), book (John Flynn), direction (Nathan Moore), lead actor (Garrett Clayton), two featured actors (Trevin Goin and Sterling Sulieman), and two featured actresses (Janaya Jones and Lana Mckissack).

In addition to best production, Little Shop’s other nominations include best acting ensemble, music direction (Darryl Archibald), lead actor (George Salazar), lead actress (MJ Rodriguez), and featured actress (Cheyenne Isabel). The other nominations for Love, Actually Live! include two featured actors (Declan Bennett and Rex Smith), featured actress (Carrie Manolakos), lighting design (Michael Berger), scenic design (Matthew Steinbrenner), sound design (Benjamin Soldate), costume design (Steve Mazurek), and video design (Aaron Rhyne). Below are clips of “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop and “Love, Actually Is All Around” from Love, Actually Live!

In addition to best production, Fun Home’s other nominations include direction (Marya Mazor), lead actor (Ron Hastings), and two featured actresses (Holly Reichert and Madelyn Velasquez-Heywood). Additional nods for Miracle on 34th Street were for sound design (Robert Ramirez) and costume design (Jessica Champagne-Hansen), while the additional nods for Salvage were for its score (Tim Alderson, Mark Heard, Pat Terry, and Randy Vanwarmer) and scenic design (Joel David).

The new musical Found received five nods, for best acting ensemble, book (Hunter Bell and Lee Overtree), score (Eli Bolin), direction (Moritz Von Stuelpnagel), and lead actor (Mike Millan). Revenge Song tallied four nods, for featured actress (Amy Kim), fight direction (Time Brown and Maggie MacDonald), costume design (Jessica Shay), and video design (Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson). And three nominations went to For the Love of a Glove, including score (Drew Erickson, Julien Nitzberg, Nicole Morier, and Max Townsley), lead actor (Eric B. Anthony), and costume design (Ann Closs-Farley).

Shows with two nods include A Christmas Carole King (featured actors Rick Batalla and Matt Walker), The Heal (choreographer Erika Chong Shuch and costume designer Sarah Cubbage), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (music director Stephan Terry and lead actress Karole Foreman), and The Music Man (choreographer Peggy Hickey and lead actress Katharine McDonough).

Other musical nominees included Ken Page (featured actor in Grumpy Old Men), Kate Dunn (choreographer of Matilda), and Neil Simon (book writer of Musical Fools).