27th Annual Ovation Awards Take Over the Ahmanson Theatre Tonight

The 27th Annual LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards ceremony will take place tonight, January 17, 2017, at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts leads the pack with 22 nominations for their productions of American Idiot (7), First Date (7), Dreamgirls (4), and Empire (4).

Center Theatre Group follows with 20 nominations for their productions of Endgame (10) and Women Laughing Alone with Salad (1) at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 (6 noms) at the Mark Taper Forum; and Grey Gardens (2) and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (1) at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Geffen Playhouse received 18 nominations for their productions of Guards at the Taj (7), Barcelona (6), Outside Mullingar (2), These Paper Bullets! A Modish Ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1), Big Sky (1), and Best Season.

Celebration Theatre garnered 16 nominations for their productions of The Boy from Oz (10), Bootycandy (3), Dream Boy (2), and Best Season.

The Theatre @ Boston Court has 11 nominations which break down as follows - Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (co-production with The Getty Villa), 4 noms; The Golden Dragon (3), Colony Collapse (3), and Seven Spots on the Sun (1).

The Los Angeles LGBT Center received 10 nominations for their productions of Hit the Wall (5) and HAM: A Musical Memoir (4), as well as Best Season.

Ovation Honors, which recognize outstanding achievement in areas that are not among the standard list of nomination categories, have been awarded to Gregory Nabours (Music Composition for a Play, The Sparrow at Coeurage Theatre Company); Edgar Landa (Fight Choreography, Son of Semele Ensemble's That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play); and Greg Ballora, Sean Cawelti, Christine Papalexis, Jack Pullman, and BrIan White (Puppet Design, Woody Boy Long Fish at Bootleg Theater).

For the 2015-2016 voting season, there are a grand total of 214 nominations for 70 productions presented by 45 companies. There were 280 total productions registered from 116 companies. Of those productions registered, 56 were Ovation Recommended, identified during their runs as scoring in the top quarter of all productions in the Overall Production categories.

A complete list of nominees is available at ThisStage.la.

Founded in 1989, the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each year, through an application process, by the Ovation Rules Committee. This year's Ovation Awards eligibility period ran from August 31, 2015 through August 28, 2016.

LA Stage Alliance is a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. This year's Ovation Awards ceremony is sponsored in part by Wells Fargo, Bakers Man Productions, Time Out Los Angeles, Performances Magazine, and Ken Werther Publicity.