Liesel Allen Yeager, Ben Cole and Scott Parkenson in Cock – Photo: Teddy Wolff
“This is a bit of a surprise,” marveled David Muse, artistic director of Studio Theatre, accepting the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Play during a ceremony held at the Lincoln Theatre Monday, April 6. His company’s 2014 production of Cock, Mike Bartlett’s drama about a gay man contemplating leaving his longtime same-sex partner for a woman, was an upset winner in the crown-jewel category that also included Studio’s most successful production ever, Bad Jews. Cock also defeated Olney Theatre’s Colossal, about the struggles of a gay college football player. Still, Olney’s production took home four awards, including Outstanding Original new play or musical.
Technically, Cock was one of two works crowned Outstanding Play at the 31st annual awards ceremony, presented by Theatre Washington to honor works that opened in 2014. For the first time, the Helen Hayes honored two people or productions in most of its leading categories, nearly doubling the number of awards in a slightly confusing process. Essentially, there are “Hayes” nominees, including Cock, or productions distinguished by a higher ratio of Actors’ Equity members to non-union contractors, and then there are “Helen” nominees, with fewer union members, often associated with smaller or newer companies. Most significant among the smaller “Helen” companies was Theater Alliance, which won seven awards, more than any other company. (Kennedy Center was second best, with five.)
Alliance’s wins included 2014’s other Outstanding Play, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, and Langston Hughes’s Black Nativity, one of three Outstanding Musicals honored. The other two were the result of a tie in the Hayes category: Kennedy Center’s Side Showand Signature Theatre’s Sunday in the Park with George. Side Show also won for its ensemble and costume designer Paul Tazewell, while Sunday won for its director, Matthew Gardiner, and lead actress, Brynn O’Malley.
Other winning highlights at the 31st annual ceremony: Erin Weaver, who won for her supporting work in the musical Ordinary Days at Round House Theatre and Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage; Sam Ludwig as lead Hayes actor in Olney’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Barbara Walsh for her scarily good portrayal of the deranged fundamentalist mother in Studio Theatre’s 2ndStage Helen show Carrie: The Musical; Nanna Ingvarsson for her astounding performance in the one-woman tour-de-force The Amish Project, a Helen production from Rick Hammerly’s fledgling theater collective Factory 449; and e’marcus Harper-Short, honored for his musical direction of Theater Allance’s Black Nativity.
The Spring-into-Summer offerings this year in the classical realm are as rich, diverse, and extensive as ever. There's even a WorldPride-affiliated event here and there, including a two-day festival that will close out May in surely the gayest way ever up at Strathmore. But don't think for a second that the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington is gonna take that lying down. In fact, for WorldPride, the organization's many choristers are planning to do a whole lot of popping up, all over the city, for two full weeks. And wouldn't you know it, they're even calling in reinforcements from all over the country.
A concerned mom in Sharyn Rothstein's Bad Books raises a hell of a ruckus over a library book she deems obscene, but, in truth, neither her ensuing crusade nor Rothstein's juicily enjoyable play are about bad books, whatever those might be.
The book in question -- bearing an amusingly suggestive title which won't be spoiled here -- seems only incidental to what's really upsetting this Mother.
Still, that won't stop her from raising a self-righteous army of fellow concerned moms in her campaign to have the supposedly offensive tome removed from the shelves of her town's public library.
It was Monday in the dark with Mandy Patinkin as Signature Theatre feted this year’s Stephen Sondheim Award honoree with a glowing musical tribute to his career on stage and screen. Joined by Kathryn Grody, his wife of 45 years, Patinkin sat center table at the annual gala, held for the second consecutive year at The Anthem.
The concert venue was ever apt for singing the praises of the Tony and Emmy winning performer, whose artistry in creating roles on Broadway in Evita, The Secret Garden, The Wild Party, and, of course, Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, helped earn him the Sondheim Award, established by Signature in 2009 “to honor an individual for his or her contributions to American Musical Theater.”
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.