“ The Wiz” received the awards for Best Choreographer for Mark Stuart, Best Musical Direction for Jason Wetzel and Best Ensemble in a Musical. The voting for the awards took place online by the theatergoing public, and the winners were announced on Broadway- World.com on Jan. 10.
The awards were for all theaters and musical theater companies in the greater Boston region. Nominations were announced online last fall, and the online voting continued until Dec. 31, 2011. The award categories were broken down between plays and musical theater and the nominations were separated into the categories of large, medium and small theaters. MSMT was nominated in all categories for large musical theater.
“ The Wiz” also received nominations for Best Director for Donna Drake, Best Actress for LaQuet Sharnell who played Dorothy and Best Actor for Eric B. Anthony who played the Scarecrow.
MSMT’s Lauren Weintraub and Charis Leos also were nominated for their performances as Annie and Miss Hannigan in MSMT’s 2011 production of “Annie.”
“Annie” director Marc Robin also was nominated.
Morgan Smith received a nomination for Best Actress for her performance in MSMT’s production of “The Marvelous Wonderettes.”
MSMT’s production of “Xanadu” was nominated for Best Ensemble.
Stuart’s choreography in “The Wiz” was lauded for its intensity and visual cohesiveness to the story, according to a Maine State Music Theatre release.
Jason Wetzel has served as musical director for several prior productions at MSMT. He “is known for creating the prefect balance between the pit orchestra and the voices on stage, allowing each individual artist to shine yet maintaining the integrity of the music as intended by its composer( s),” the release states.
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