It was a horse race to the finish at last night's 21st annual Helen Hayes Awards at the Warner Theatre, and two of the evening's biggest prizes wound up as ties. In a surprisingly good showing for troubled old musicals, Signature Theatre's "Allegro" and Arena Stage's "Señor Discretion Himself" shared the award for outstanding resident musical. And best direction of a play went to first-time winner Aaron Posner for "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Folger Theatre and to Michael Kahn -- his sixth Hayes directing trophy -- for "Cyrano" at the Shakespeare Theatre.
"Cyrano," nimbly adapted from Edmond Rostand's swashbuckling romance about a lovelorn swordsman with an outsize schnoz, earned Geraint Wyn Davies the award for outstanding lead actor in a resident play. The show won another major honor as outstanding resident play, presumably (given the rash of tight finishes) by a nose.
The Hayes Awards, the annual prize-fest of professional theater in the Washington area, were hosted last night by singer and actress E. Faye Butler in a festive and surprisingly witty show that lasted less than two hours. Among the highlights was a production number with actors lovingly singing "We're Nothing Without You" from "City of Angels" to a collection of generally unheralded backstage workers, who gamely danced along while wielding electric drills.
"How about that power-tool dance?" Butler cracked when she returned after one of her four costume changes during the evening.
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| Geraint Wyn Davies (at right, with Ryan Artzberger) won a lead actor Hayes award for his performance in "Cyrano."( |
"Cyrano," with four awards -- James Noone's set also won, along with James Kronzer's design for "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the Round House Theatre, in yet another tie -- was the closest thing to a juggernaut this year. "Anne Frank" was something of a technical powerhouse, though: For evoking the cramped quarters and chronic fear of the Jewish families hiding in an Amsterdam attic during World War II, the design team of Kronzer, Daniel MacLean Wagner (lights) and Martin Desjardins (sound) were all honored. All three won last year as well -- Kronzer and Wagner for another Round House collaboration ("The Drawer Boy").
Arlington's Signature Theatre took the most prizes overall, with five. The troupe's reworking of "Allegro," a 1947 flop by Rodgers and Hammerstein, not only shared the top musical honor but also won for Gregg Barnes's costume design and for Eric Schaeffer's direction. "This was a show that Oscar always wanted to fix and get right," said Schaeffer, referring to lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. Schaeffer, Signature's artistic director, is as much a fixture at the Hayes Awards as Kahn, having been nominated every year since 1992 and winning this year for the fourth time.
The rest of Signature's wins came for Jon Kalbfleisch's musical direction and Jason Danieley's lead performance in the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's play "The Highest Yellow," in which a doctor (Danieley) becomes seduced by the wild creative power of Vincent van Gogh.
Arena Stage, nominated 10 times this year, received just two awards, though its share of the outstanding resident musical honor marked the fifth time in seven years Arena has claimed that prize. Like "Allegro," "Señor Discretion" is a star-crossed musical with a first-class pedigree, a previously unproduced show penned in the 1960s by the great Frank Loesser ("Guys and Dolls," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"). Ann Duquesnay, who delivered a sassy and powerful turn in "Hallelujah, Baby!" (co-produced with New Jersey's George Street Playhouse), was Arena's other winner, for best supporting actress in a resident musical.
The four nonresident categories were split evenly between the Kennedy Center and the National Theatre. The nods for outstanding lead performers in a nonresident production went to Holly Cruikshank and Ron Todorowski as Billy Joel's fabled Brenda and Eddie in "Movin' Out," the dance musical -- directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp from Joel's pop songs -- that played at the National. In a category that lumps musicals and straight plays together, Todorowski finished ahead of James Earl Jones, whose performance in "On Golden Pond" at the Kennedy Center last fall is now considered a favorite for the Tony Award on Broadway. (Those nominations will be announced today.)
It was a tough year, Hayes-wise, to be a movie actor doing stage work at the Kennedy Center, especially in the center's ambitious Tennessee Williams festival. Neither Sally Field's Amanda Wingfield (largely praised) nor Mary Stuart Masterson's Maggie the Cat (which got a mixed reception) captured nominations, and Patricia Clarkson's edgy Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" was bested for best leading actress in a play by Gin Hammond's multi-character solo turn in the South Africa-set "Syringa Tree" at Studio Theatre.
The Kennedy Center's wins went to Lee Roy Reams, named outstanding supporting performer in a nonresident production as the monumentally flamboyant director Roger DeBris in "The Producers," and to "The Producers" itself as the top nonresident production.
Stalemates are hardly unknown at the Hayes Awards. There were two ties last year; the year before that, Broadway director Christopher Ashley, who won for "Sweeney Todd" at the Kennedy Center, shared the honors with Toby Orenstein, director of "Jekyll and Hyde" at her namesake dinner theater in Columbia. The current selection process, which includes tie-breaking procedures that apparently aren't very rigorous, involves a pool of 50 judges, 10 of whom are assigned to a given show. (The Hayes Awards stick to the calendar year, and in 2004, 187 productions were eligible for consideration.) After seeing a performance, each judge completes a ballot; not only the nominees but the winners are determined in that voting.
A number of familiar faces added to their trophy counts this year. Bernardine Mitchell won her second award as outstanding lead actress in a resident musical, this time for "Mahalia, a Gospel Musical" at MetroStage. David James of Toby's also won for a second time, last night getting the honor for his supporting turn in "Godspell." Holly Twyford's inspired clowning in the Folger's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" marked her third win, and her first as a supporting actress. The award for outstanding choreography in a play or musical went to Irina Tsikurishvili -- her fourth -- for Synetic Theatre's fantastical "Master and Margarita."
David Toney notched his first win, earning a nod for his supporting work in August Wilson's "Two Trains Running" with the African Continuum Theatre Company. He also set off what became a fabulous running gag when he kissed presenter Susan Lynskey: "I've already done two things my mother didn't want me to do -- go into the theater and kiss a white woman in front of people." Lynskey and subsequent winners David James and Holly Twyford kept the joke going brilliantly.
The Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play or musical was given to Craig Wright for "Melissa Arctic," his "Winter's Tale" update at the Folger. Taking the cake for tough luck was the plucky Theater Alliance, a small troupe that went into the awards with an impressive 10 nominations -- seven for its admired production of "Mary's Wedding" -- but came up empty.
The late James Taylor, who created the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive, was remembered with a special award, and three noncompetitive awards were also handed out, each with a flourish.
Sidney Harman, benefactor of the Shakespeare Theatre's forthcoming Harman Center for the Arts, was given the KPMG Award for Distinguished Service, and was introduced as Butler crooned "Pennies From Harman," to the tune of "Pennies From Heaven." Joy Zinoman, artistic director of the ever-expanding Studio Theatre, received the Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership, and she returned the favor by making suggestions for improvements in The Post's theater coverage.
Composer Jerry Herman ("Hello, Dolly!," "La Cage aux Folles") received the Helen Hayes Tribute, and brought the crowd to its feet several times -- once for just being there and twice more as he sat at the piano and performed with the gusto of a full-blown chorus line.
