With Five Wins, 'Macbeth' Helps Synetic Rule At Hayes Awards

All hail "Macbeth," the Synetic Theater production that dominated the 24th annual Helen Hayes Awards last night at the Warner Theatre.

Synetic's wordless, movement-driven "Macbeth" won five awards, including the capper as outstanding resident play. Duplicating the Hayes Award success of their 2003 "Hamlet . . . the rest is silence," the husband-and-wife team of Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili received trophies for direction and choreography, respectively.

The Hayes Awards are Washington's version of the Tonys, only without the commercial jockeying. (This is for 2007 shows, all of which have long been closed.) Last night, the prizes clustered particularly around four companies: Synetic, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. And in a rare double shutout, no competitive awards were won by either of the city's two biggest and most acclaimed producing troupes, Arena Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Synetic led with six wins, including the nod for outstanding ensemble, which went not to "Macbeth" but to a revival of the company's "Hamlet." The Tsikurishvilis, emigres from the republic of Georgia and gifted performers with the troupe they founded here in 2002, have been turning heads with their increasingly confident and nonverbal adaptations of classics (generally performed in the conference hall atmosphere of the Rosslyn Spectrum). Irina has had a near-stranglehold on the choreography category for most of this decade.

Studio and Woolly each won five awards, with Studio's adventurous 2ndStage surprisingly taking the outstanding resident musical prize for "Reefer Madness: The Musical." "Reefer" co-directors Keith Alan Baker, Matt Gardiner and Ryan Christie tied for the directing award in the musical category with Eric Schaeffer, who was tapped for his work on the premiere of "Meet John Doe" at Ford's Theatre.

Studio's triumphs also included lead actor and actress awards for past Hayes winners Nancy Robinette and J. Fred Shiffman, co-stars of the riotous two-character "Souvenir, a Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins." Jenkins was an opera singer manqué known for her shaky pitch and florid get-ups; appropriately, Reggie Ray's costume design for the show also was honored.

In the acting categories, laughter helped -- and actually speaking Shakespeare didn't help, even in a year that began with a six-month citywide Shakespeare in Washington festival. Woolly cornered the supporting-acting categories: Kate Eastwood Norris, last year's winner in the same category, and Daniel Escobar both won for impish turns in David Greenspan's role-reversing romp, "She Stoops to Comedy." In another tie, Escobar shared the award with Philip Fletcher in Synetic's mystical "Macbeth."

Woolly's other wins hinged on "Dead Man's Cell Phone," the drama by Sarah Ruhl, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. Ruhl won the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play or musical, and nods for the show also went to Neil Patel's set and Colin K. Bills's lighting design.

The musical awards were more widely distributed. Signature performers earned trophies for supporting work in three productions; the splashiest of the company's five trophies in four categories was for Marc Kudisch's hip-grinding leading performance as Darryl Van Horne in "The Witches of Eastwick." The award for Heidi Blickenstaff's appealingly sassy leading turn at Ford's Theatre in "Meet John Doe," along with Schaeffer's directing trophy, felt like bank-shot successes for Signature, since Schaeffer is artistic director there. (The production featured a number of Signature regulars.)

In the non-resident category recognizing touring productions or work that originated out of town, Bill Irwin and Cherry Jones won for the roles that earned them Tonys in 2005. Irwin was cited for his controlled, bitter turn at the Kennedy Center in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (which surprisingly didn't even yield a nomination for his co-star, Kathleen Turner). And Jones won for her sterling work as the crusading Sister Aloysius in John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt, a Parable" at the National Theatre. The 2004 Tony winner "Avenue Q," which toured at the National, was named outstanding non-resident production.

Arena Stage shared The Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership with the corporate and civic partners that have helped Arena relocate to Crystal City until 2010. In other special awards, Derek Jacobi was the subject of the annual Helen Hayes Tribute; longtime WGMS broadcaster Bob Davis and Henry Schalizki were given the Governor's Award (only the third bestowed in Hayes history); and the new John Aniello Award for emerging troupes went to Taffety Punk Theatre Company.

The Hayes Awards are determined by a pool of 60 judges grouped into categories covering musicals, new works and the remainder of straight plays over a calendar year.