Posted on March 18, 2008 at 9:01 am

I was having a big night last night. While Lauren Kennedy and I were in New York, rocking Birdland with The Last Five Years, my show “13” was kicking ass all over Los Angeles. Genuinely wonderful news, as reported by Ken Jones here.

L.A. Drama Critics Embrace 13, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Zanna, Don’t! in Annual Awards
By Kenneth Jones
18 Mar 2008

Jason Robert Brown’s coming-of-age musical, 13, and Stephen Adly Guirgis’s In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings were honored by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle during its 39th annual awards March 17.

The awards celebrate excellence in Southern California theatre, including Los Angeles and Orange County.

13 (produced by Center Theatre Group at Mark Taper Forum) and In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings (produced by Elephant Theatre in association with VS. Theatre Company) both won in the Production category.

Composer-lyricist Brown won for Musical Score, and the show snagged an award for Musical Direction (David O) and Ensemble Performance (sharing the plaudit with Zanna, Don’t!).

The Guirgis play was honored in the categories of Writing (sharing the award with Jeff Goode for Love Loves a Pornographer), Scenic Design (Joel Daavid) and Lighting Design (Joel Daavid).

13, which has a libretto by nominee Dan Elish, will make its East Coast premiere in May in a staging by Goodspeed Musicals at the Norma Terris Theater. The show features young actors playing angsty high schoolers. The new staging will test major revisions made since the show’s Mark Taper Forum staging in Los Angeles.

Jason Graae hosted the L.A.D.C.C. ceremony at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre. The awards are for work seen in 2007.

Host Graae himself was among the pre-announced special honor recipients, receiving the Joel Hirschhorn Award (for outstanding achievement in musical theatre).

Other special awards: The Margaret Harford Award (for sustained excellence in theatre by an individual, company or theatre) was given to Musical Theatre West, and the Polly Warfield Award (for an outstanding single season by a small to mid-sized theatre) to Theater Banshee. Jane Anderson took The Ted Schmitt Award (for outstanding world premiere play in Los Angeles) for The Quality of Life. Leigh Allen earned The Angstrom Award (for career achievement in lighting design).

A special honor went to Jon Maher for his long-term outstanding achievement as an ASL interpreter.

The 2007 nominees and recipients for the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards follow. Winners are indicated in bold with an asterisk:

PRODUCTION
*13, CTG, Mark Taper Forum
dark play or stories for boys, Theater@Boston Court
*In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings, Elephant Theater Company with VS. Theater Company
The Quality of Life, Geffen Playhouse
Trying, Colony Theater Company

REVIVAL
*The Hasty Heart, Pacific Resident Theater Company
Tonight at 8:30, Parts 1 and 2, Antaeus Theater Company at Deaf West Theater
Waiting for Godot, A Noise Within

LEAD PERFORMANCE
Dennis Boutsikaris, The Quality of Life
*Danny Calvert, Zanna, Don’t!, West Coast Ensemble
Gregory Itzin, Shipwrecked: An Entertainment, South Coast Repertory
*Matt Letscher, Anatol, Pacific Resident Theater
*Alan Mandell, Trying
*Rebecca Marcotte, Loyal Women, Theater Banshee
*Laurie Metcalf, The Quality of Life
*Gabriel Olds, Tryst, Black Dahlia Theater
Deborah Puette, Tryst
Rex Smith, The Pirates of Penzance, Musical Theater West at Carpenter Performing Arts Center

FEATURED PERFORMANCE
Deanne Bray, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, CTG, Kirk Douglas Theater
Stephen Cell, Small Tragedy, Odyssey Theater Ensemble
*Misty Cotton, A Little Night Music, South Coast Repertory
*Adam Haas Hunter, dark play or stories for boys
Norman Large, The Pirates of Penzance
*Shawn Lee, An Impending Rupture of the Belly, Furious Theater Company at Pasadena Playhouse
Kathleen Rose Perkins, Love Loves a Pornographer, Circle X at [Inside] the Ford
JoBeth Williams, The Quality of Life

ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
*13, Mark Taper Forum
Loyal Women, Theater Banshee
Waiting for Godot, A Noise Within
Winter Wonderettes, El Portal Forum Theater
*Zanna, Don’t!, West Coast Ensemble

WRITING
Dan Elish, 13
Joanna McClelland Glass, Trying
*Jeff Goode, Love Loves a Pornographer
*Stephen Adly Guirgis, In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings
Carlos Murillo, dark play or stories for boys

ADAPTATION
Martin Crimp, The Misanthrope, Andak Stage Company at New Place Studio Theater
Stephen Sachs, Miss Julie, Fountain Theater
*Matt Walker, Alice In One-Hit Wonderland, Troubadour Theater Company at Falcon Theater

MUSICAL SCORE
Tim Acito and Alexander Dinelaris, Zanna, Don’t!
*Jason Robert Brown, 13
Michael John LaChiusa, Little Fish, Blank Theater Company at 2nd Stage Theater

DIRECTION
Jillian Armenante, Love Loves a Pornographer
*Dan Bonnell, Anatol, Pacific Resident Theater
Jeff Calhoun, Sleeping Beauty Wakes
*Nick DeGruccio, Zanna, Don’t!
*Michael Michetti, dark play or stories for boys

MUSICAL DIRECTION
Brian Baker, Winter Wonderettes, El Portal Forum Theater
John Glaudini, Altar Boyz, Musical Theater West at Carpenter Performing Arts Center
*David O, 13
*Gerald Sternbach, On Your Toes, Reprise! Broadway’s Best at UCLA Freud Playhouse

CHOREOGRAPHY
Christine Lakin & Paul Nygro, Zanna, Don’t!
Troy Magino, Altar Boyz
*Lee Martino, On Your Toes
*Janet Miller, Winter Wonderettes

SCENIC DESIGN
*Joel Daavid, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings
Robert G. Smith, Bug, Lost Angels Theater Company at Coast Playhouse
Gary Smoot, Love Loves A Pornographer

LIGHTING DESIGN
*Joel Daavid, In Arabia We’d All be Kings
Jeremy Pivnick, Calling Aphrodite, International City Theater
Steven Young, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Theater@Boston Court

COSTUME DESIGN
*Shon LeBlanc, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
Maggie Morgan, Sleeping Beauty Wakes
Paul Spadone, Love Loves a Pornographer

SOUND DESIGN
*Lindsay Jones, Bug
Cricket Myers, dark play or stories for boys
Eric Snodgrass, Sleeping Beauty Wakes

PUPPET DESIGN
*Rick Lyon, Avenue Q, CTG, Ahmanson Theater

For further information, visit ladramacriticscircle.com.