Palm Beach County theaters, and particularly the Maltz Jupiter, dominated the nominations for this year’s 37th annual Carbonell Awards, announced on Friday.
The Maltz will be competing for 23 of the statuettes for excellence in South Florida professional theater, almost twice as many as the next highest nomination-getter ― Coral Gables’ Actors’ Playhouse ― which received 12.
The county-by-county breakdown puts Palm Beach on top with 45 nominations, followed by Miami-Dade with 42 and Broward a distant third with 13.
The Maltz not only received the most nominations for a single musical, nine for its dance-heavy version of The Music Man, but the next highest nod-getter also was a Maltz show ― Hello, Dolly!, which got eight. Both will be vying for best musical production, as well as best director (Music Man’s Mark Martino; Hello, Dolly’s Marsha Milgrom Dodge), best actress (Mandy Bruno, Vicki Lewis), best supporting actor (Dennis O‘Bannion, Matt Loehr), best supporting actress (Beth Dimon, Daniella Dalli), best musical direction (Anne Shuttleworth, Helen Gregory), best choreographer (Shea Sullivan, Dodge) and best costume design (Jose M. Rivera, Gail Baldoni).
With such similar totals and so many head-to-head races, the potential arises for them to cancel each other out and allow numerous wins for the third highest nomination-getter, Actors’ Playhouse’s Next to Normal. It gained six mentions, including for best musical production. The other two nominees in that category are the Maltz’s Cabaret (4) and, in its first year of existence, The Theatre at Arts Garage, with its Cabaret Verboten (4).
Completing its nominations total, the Maltz Jupiter got two nods for its take on the play Amadeus, cited for scenic and costume design.
Also new to the theater scene and to the Carbonells is Manalapan’s Plaza Theatre, which picked up two nominations for Driving Miss Daisy ― best actor (John Archie) and best actress (Harriet Oser).
Perennial winner GableStage looks to be the front-runner again this year among the non-musical categories, gaining nine nominations for its area premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Ruined. It was cited for best production of a play, best director (Joe Adler), best actress (Lela Elam), best supporting actor (Robert Strain), best supporting actress (Renata Eastlick, Jade Wheeler), best scenic, lighting and costume design.
Its closest competitors are two plays from Miami’s Zoetic Stage ― I Am My Own Wife and Moscow ― which each got five nominations, including best play production. Filling the category are a pair of Palm Beach County productions: A Delicate Balance from Palm Beach Dramaworks and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity from the since defunct Caldwell Theatre Co.
Chad Deity got four nominations, including or best actor (Brandon Morris) and best scenic and sound design. Dramaworks’ 12 nominations are spread over five productions ― A Delicate Balance (4), The Fantasticks (4), Talley’s Folly (2), The Effect of Gamma rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1) and The Pitmen Painters (1).
The awards will be handed out at a gala ceremony on Monday, April 1, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.
For a complete list of the Carbonell nominations, visit http://carbonellawards.org/