44th L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award Winners Announced - THE BOOK OF MORMON, WAR HORSE & More

French Stewart, TV star ("3rd Rock From the Sun") and local theatre mainstay ("Stoneface": "Voice Lessons") hosted the 44th annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Awards on March 18 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St. downtown.

And the winners are...

Production: The Book of Mormon; Cyrano; Justin Love; War Horse.

McCulloh Award for Revival: Waiting for Godot

Ensemble Performance: In the Red and Brown Water; The New Electric Ballroom; The Savannah Disputation; Waiting for Godot

Lead Performance: Troy Kotsur, Cyrano; Christine Lakin, Silence! The Musical; Alan Mandell, Waiting for Godot

Featured Performance: Larry Bates and Ellis E. Williams, Jitney; Michael A. Newcomer, The Bungler

Solo performance: John Hurt, Krapp's Last Tape

Direction: Michael Arabian, Waiting for Godot; Shirley Jo Finney, In the Red and Brown Water; Simon Levy, Cyrano

Writing: Danai Gurira, The Convert

Adaptation: Stephen Sachs, Cyrano

Choreography: Christopher Gattelli, Silence! The Musical; Bill T. Jones, Fela!

Musical Score: Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon; Lori Scarlett and David Manning, Justin Love; Jon Kaplan & Al Kaplan, Silence! The Musical

Musical Direction: Gregory Nabours, The Color Purple; Stephen Oremus, The Book of Mormon

CGI/Video Design: Anthony Backman and Ben Rock, Stoneface: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton

Set Design: John Iacovelli, Waiting for Godot

Costume Design: Ellen McCartney, The Treatment; Leah Piehl, Intimate Apparel

Lighting Design: Paule Constable and Karen Spahn, War Horse

Sound Design: Ben Williams, Gatz

Puppetry: Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones and Handspring Puppet Company, War Horse

Fight Choreography: David McCormick and Kelly Todd, West Side Story

Ted Schmitt Award for the Premiere of a new play: Evelina Fernandez for A Mexican Trilogy

Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence: Celebration Theatre

Polly Warfield Award for an Outstanding Season in a Small-to-Mid-Sized Theater: Fountain Theatre

Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater: David O.

Bob Z Award for Career Achievement in Set Design: Stephen Gifford

Milton Katselas Award for Career or Special Achievement in Direction: Elina de Santos

For Their Season: Center Theatre Group

Stewart presided over this year's theme "Theatre Everywhere," focusing on the wide geographical range within which LADCC members travel in the course of a year to see and celebrate the best of live performance. Top representatives of local institutions - including Michael Ritchie of CTG; Sheldon Epps of The Pasadena Playhouse; Barbara Beckley of The Colony Theatre; and Zombie Joe of Zombie Joe's Underground - assisted Circle members in presenting awards in 17 competitive categories as well as a host of special award plaques.

Entertainment, too, came from all over the region. Almost two dozen performers from Orange County reunited to perform "The Rumble" from the Chance Theatre's acclaimed and nominated revival of "West Side Story." The cast of "Justin Love," the smash musical that originated at Celebration Theatre - winner of this year's Margaret Harford Award for distinguished achievement - appeared alongside performers from "The Color Purple" (Cesili Williams); "The New Electric Ballroom" (Tim Cummings); and "Bad Apples" (Kate Morgan Chadwick, accompanied by the show's composer/lyricists Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns).

Ryan Johnson, nominated for his score for "Stoneface" which starred Stewart as the legendary Buster Keaton, served as musical director for the evening, which was produced by Daily Variety and ArtsinLA.com critic Bob Verini. Production stage manager was Heatherlynn Gonzalez. Award-winning sound designer Cricket S. Myers lent her skills to the event, whose associate producer was Peter Finlayson of Footlights Publishing.

For more information, check the website at ladramacriticscircle.com.

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