Barrymore Award Noms Come Out; Do You Care?
Even before Simon & Garfunkel wondered, “Is the thea-ter really dead?” in that song “The Dangling Conversation,” people have been wondering, you know, if the theater really was dead. If it is, its corpse keeps really active, not just by pumping out one new production after another in Philly annually, but also making you feel really guilty each year when the Barrymore Awards come out and you, you Philistine, only recognize two or three names on the list. If that’s the yardstick we’re judging the Barrymore noms on this year, we’re doing pretty good: Jeb Kreager and Mr. Marmalade — literally the only play we wrote about last year — score a few noms, as do Pig Iron Theater stalwarts Dito von Reigersberg and James Sugg. But on the other hand, the Walnut Street Theater’s production of Les Miserables cleaned up in the noms, and even without the benefit of having seen it, it still feels counterproductive that a play that has seriously been around the block in Philly so, so many times should be propped up against people who we know are doing new and exciting stuff. There’s also the matter of the unweildy award title sponsorships, such as the “Garfield Refining Company Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical” and “Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award Prize, sponsored by the Virginia and Harvey Kimmel Arts Education Fund.” Really, big time sponsors? Is that how it is? It’s not noble enough to just be a patron of the arts anymore? Sigh. Anyway, big ups also go to 1812 Productions for that latter category and to the Arden Theater, for what we hear was a really amazing and inventive new production of Our Town, and hey, guess what, we actually recognize a whole bunch of names here! F those snarkmeisters Simon & Garfunkel. Seriously.
TheatreAlliance: Strange Bedfellows, The Musical!
