Tony nominee Lara Teeter (On Your Toes), hosts the 7 PM awards event. He represents numerous Broadway folk who have roots in St. Louis — and have played its various theatres. Teeter is also the head of the St. Louis-based Webster University's musical theatre department. He'll perform during the awards evening.
Rob Ruggiero (Off-Broadway's Make Me a Song) stages the event that will include performances from nominated productions including Altar Boyz, Crazy for You, The Full Monty, Les Misérables, A Little Night Music and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Some 45 productions earned Kline Award nominations, with Stages St. Louis' production of the musical The Full Monty earning ten, followed by seven nominations for both Les Miserables at the Muny and Altar Boyz, which was produced by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.
The resident company to earn the most nods was the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, which earned 24 out of the 118 nominations announced. Stages St. Louis and the Muny came in with 22 and 14 nominations, respectively.
Among the Broadway performers nominated are Kate Baldwin, Catherine Brunell, Jennifer Cody, David Elder, Julie Foldesi, Michael Halling, Leah Hocking, Jeff McCarthy, Ken Page, Julie Tolivar and Keith Tyrone. The St. Louis production of Altar Boyz earned Kline Award nominations for both Stafford Arima and Christopher Gattelli, who repeated their duties from the Off-Broadway hit. Gemze de Lappe (2007 Tony Award Honor for Excellence in Theater) was nominated for re-creating Agnes De Mille's choreography for Oklahoma! at the Muny.
The Stages St. Louis productions of Crazy for You picked up nominations for Tolivar and Elder, The Full Monty for Halling and Tyrone, and A Little Night Music for Foldesi. Muny nominees include McCarthy, Page and Kaarina for Les Misérables, Brunell and Hocking for Oklahoma!, Baldwin for The Pajama Game and Cody for her roles in both Pajama Game and Hello, Dolly!
The Kevin Kline Awards will be presented at the Loretto-Hilton Center. For a complete list of nominees and tickets to the awards ceremony visit www.kevinklineawards.org.
