Horizon, Alliance, Synchronicity take home most prizes at Suzi Bass Awards

“Great Comet,” which was a commercial and critical success, has been staged twice already at Horizon and will return for an encore run in January. A musical adaptation of 70 pages of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” it’s a project that Horizon Theater Artistic Director Lisa Adler had wanted to stage for a while. Timing and then the pandemic initially stood in her way before last year’s debut. “It was a big risk and very expensive, but it’s been an incredible experience,” said Adler.

Heidi McKerley won Best Director of a Musical, while she and her husband Jeff (also a featured actor in the production) won for choreography. The show also picked up an award for Alexandria Joy, who starred as Natasha, for Principal Performer in a Musical. Joy recalled attending her first Suzi Award ceremony in 2018 and fantasizing about being on awards-program stage one day.

Credit: Photo by Chris Helton

Credit: Photo by Chris Helton

Two performers are named in each acting category, and also winning here was Bethany Irby, who played Carole King in Aurora Theatre’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” last fall. In her acceptance speech, Irby recalled that when she moved to Atlanta, she didn’t want anyone to know she played the piano because she feared she’d wind up in the orchestra pit and not onstage. Eventually, though, she was hired by late Georgia Ensemble Theatre Artistic Director Bob Farley and McKerley for onstage gigs, and then by Aurora Theatre Artistic Director Ann-Carol Pence to bring Carole King to life.

ArtsATL Editor-at-Large Kelundra Smith’s “The Wash,” staged earlier this year by Synchronicity and Impact theaters, took home four awards, including Best World Premiere, the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award and Best Ensemble in a Play for performers Kenedi Deal, Tanya Freeman, Makallen Kelley, Charis Sellick and Jamila Turner. The drama dealt with the Atlanta Washerwoman’s Strike of 1881. Smith was not present for what the play’s dramaturge, Antonia LaChe McCain, called a good reason: She is in a workshop prepping the show for an off-Broadway premiere next June.

Smith did share some thoughts to deliver via McCain. “I am so thankful to the Atlanta theater community for the support and celebration of this play. This opportunity is no doubt the direct result of the success of the Atlanta run.”

She also expressed her hope that “every professional theater takes note that Atlanta plays by Atlanta playwrights are always worth the risk.”

Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford

Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford

Other big winners included Theatrical Outfit’s “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski,” a one-man show, copresented by the Breman Museum, that centers around the Polish freedom fighter and diplomat who presents evidence of the Holocaust. The production won awards for Best Play and Best Performance in a Leading Role for Andrew Benator. Benator has been part of the Atlanta theater scene for almost 20 years. “It’s a wonderful feeling being part of this community,” he said. Also winning in that category was Steve Coulter for Theatrical Outfit’s production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

In the Featured Performer in a Musical category, Isa Martinez won their showstopping performance as Sister Mary Robert in Aurora’s “Sister Act,” alongside Ben Thorpe for his work as Hugo/Loco Chanelle in Actor’s Express’ “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.”

Taking the award for Featured Performer in a Play were Shelly McCook as Sylvia in “Home, I’m Darling,” staged by Synchronicity Theatre, and Rivka Levin as Shylock in Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s version of “The Merchant of Venice.” In her acceptance speech, McCook talked about the joy of returning to work after the pandemic and the death of her husband, while Levin thanked her company and team for getting behind an all-female version of “Venice.” “The vast majority of our audience responded just as we would hope to the racist, antisemitic and misogynist lies in this play,” she said. “They got it, and they let us know they thought such attitudes intolerable. There is still some hope left.”

The big winner among the Theatre for Young Audiences categories was the Alliance’s “Into the Burrow: A Peter Rabbit Tale,” with four awards.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Carolyn Cook

Credit: Photo courtesy of Carolyn Cook

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Carolyn Cook and Chris Kayser, both active in Atlanta theater for more than 25 years. Kayser could not attend, so the award was accepted by his son Jacob, and Cook quipped that the definition of lifetime achievement was “knowing both Suzi Bass and [the late] Gene-Gabriel Moore.”

Adler, too, spoke of their professional collaborations, meeting Cook in the ‘80s and directing her in a few shows. Cook has acted in companies all across the city — receiving two lead actress Suzi Awards, including last year for Actor’s Express’ “Prayer for the French Republic” — and also founded Théâtre du Rêve in 1996, where she served as an artistic producing director twice until stepping away earlier this year.

Taking home the Callboard Award for behind-the-scenes work was Nick Battaglia, in residence at Actor’s Express.

This season, the Suzi committee decided that shows that are using Atlanta as a tryout for a Broadway run were no longer eligible for awards. So while the Alliance’s “Water for Elephants” last year won nine Suzis, the recent Alliance production of “The Preacher’s Wife” was not eligible (and in a season so strong, it might have struggled to land nominations regardless).

Overall, several shows I deeply enjoyed — the Alliance’s “Fat Ham” and “English” and Actor’s Express’ “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — received fewer nominations than I had hoped.

Among those remembered in the In Memoria segment were former Actor’s Express Artistic Director Wier Harman, playwright Shay Youngblood, arts donor and activist Jesse Peel, music director Warren Lankford and theater administrator Scott Rousseau.

Among theater companies, Horizon Theater led the way with eight awards, followed by the Alliance Theatre and Synchronicity with six each.

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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig, and dog, Douglas.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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