Carbonells honor best of South Florida theater

Two productions that ran at opposite ends of South Florida's vast regional theater community last March -- the Actors' Playhouse staging of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Florida Stage's God's Man in Texas -- all but swept their respective categories when the 25th annual Carbonell Awards were presented Monday night at the Colony Theater on Miami Beach.

Joseph won eight Carbonells -- emblematic of excellence in South Florida theater -- for the Coral Gables theater, including awards for best musical, best director of a musical, and best actor and actress in a musical.

David Rambo's God's Man in Texas, a stinging play about the politics and big business of organized religion, brought five Carbonells to Florida Stage, the much-honored company based in Palm Beach County's tony Manalapan.

GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, which led all theaters with 22 Carbonell nominations, won three awards with Paul Tei taking the honor as best actor in a play for his chilling performance as a platinum-haired killer in Popcorn, Pamela Roza winning best supporting actress in a play for her work as a conniving trailer-trash stepmom in Killer Joe and M. Anthony Reimer being honored for his jazz-infused sound on Side Man.

However Joe Adler, GableStage's producing artistic director, did win the prestigious George Abbott Award for outstanding achievement in the arts.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which is getting its feet wet as a producing theater this season, won the best new work Carbonell for its production of Say Goodnight, Gracie, Rupert Holmes' warmly funny one-man show about comedian George Burns. The play also earned Frank Gorshin the award for best actor in a road show.

Another Broward Center touring show, the musical version of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, won road show Carbonells for best production and for Frank Galati's direction while the production of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit at the Parker Playhouse won touring show Carbonells for best actress (Judith Light) and best supporting actress (Lisa Tharp).

The Carbonell Awards, named for award designer Manuel Carbonell and presented by the South Florida Critics' Circle in conjunction with the Theatre League of South Florida, took a slightly political turn this year with the presentation of several special awards.

The parties that sued to overturn Miami-Dade County's Cuba ordinance were honored with the new Howard Kleinberg Award, named for the longtime Miami News editor. Choreographer Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros, whose longtime relationship with the Miami City Ballet was severed over the summer, was honored with the Bill Hindman Award, as was veteran actor Harold Bergman. Artistic director Vinnette Carroll and her associate Tony Thompson were given the Ruth Foreman Award for their pioneering work with Fort Lauderdale's Vinnette Carroll Theatre, a black theater company whose future is endangered by Carroll's health problems and scant community support.

Christine Dolen is The Herald's theater critic.