With so many musicals these days based on popular movies, it is hardly normal to encounter a show based on an original story, let alone the dramatic tale of a family mired in the grip of a member’s bipolar mental disorder.

Call it instead Next to Normal, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical from the talented new songwriting team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. While they are mindful of the basic tenets of musical theater, there is little that is traditional about this gut-wrenching, emotionally jolting show that places the audience in the middle of a troubled family dynamic.

And while Actors’ Playhouse and its artistic director David Arisco produce traditional large-scale musicals such as Hairspray or Les Miserables very well, the company’s creative juices seem particularly stimulated when it leaves the mainstream. Think of Floyd Collins, Violet or Songs For a New World and add to them what is perhaps a new qualitative high for all concerned, Next to Normal.

Quick, what rhymes with “electro-convulsive therapy”? Yorkey’s lyrics dip into medical jargon, but at their core they sing about the human struggle for connection and that societal standard we deem normalcy. And if, because of a chemical or pharmacological imbalance, normalcy is not an option, the next best thing will do.

Certainly suburban housewife and mother Diana Goodman seems unable to cope with daily life, as the show’s ironic opening number, Just Another Day, puts it. In fact, Diana’s manic-depressive responses to everyday chores are taking a toll on her family -- her caring, but clueless architect husband Dan, her neglected teenage daughter Natalie and her son Gabe, who may just be the root cause of Diana’s mental instability.

Much of the show’s plot concerns the efforts to find an answer for Diana’s dilemma, through the doctors who prescribe various mood-numbing drugs and, eventually, shock treatment. No, Next to Normal is not geared to the escapism entertainment crowd, but it is riveting theater, with its emotional impact only heightened by the musical through line.

The vocal demands of Kitt’s rock music and the acting demands of Yorkey’s script call for exceptionally skilled performers, and director Arisco has them. Even those who have enjoyed Jodie Langel as Eva Peron in Evita and the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre may be surprised by the polar opposites of fragility and power she brings to Diana. She conveys such heart-breaking mental confusion amid some full-throttle arias. It was an award-winning role on Broadway and could well be so again here.

Nor is there a weak link in the supporting cast, led by Eddy Rioseco’s rock star-like Gabe, explosively prowling the stage with I’m Alive. Sarah Amengual is more subdued as Natalie, but she too makes the most of a spotlight number (Superboy and the Invisible Girl). Mark Sanders (husband Dan) is the production’s anchor of sanity, Ben Liebert impresses as the boy friend Natalie keeps pushing away and Nick Duckart is deliciously subversive as the various doctors on Diana’s case.

Musical director Eric Alsford reportedly championed the show choice, and he leads the six-piece band with gusto. Because the score is probably unfamiliar to most of the audience and the rock sound calls for much amplification, perhaps the show’s most crucial support comes from sound designer Alexander Herrin, who has managed an aural balance that keeps the lyrics clear and vibrant.

Although its production requirements are considerable, Next to Normal will be done a great deal at regional theaters around the country this year. It is hard to believe that many of them will be as memorable as the current show at Actors’ Playhouse.

NEXT TO NORMAL, Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Through Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets: $40-$48. Call: (305) 444-9293.

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Donald Margulies was not new on the theater scene in 2000 when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Dinner with Friends, but if the committee had only waited five more years, I suspect they would have recommended him instead for the superior Brooklyn Boy. This semi-autobiographical play looks at the American grasp for success and the toll it takes on a novelist who exploits his geographic and ethnic roots, which he had long turned away from in his private life.

The script is a worthy choice to inaugurate Parade Productions, a promising new troupe that performs at the Studio at Mizner Park, a no-frills space carved out of the second floor of the former International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton. It suggests the good taste of artistic director Kim St. Leon and her dedication to entertaining works of substance, even if the production is somewhat erratic in its casting.

Certainly it is solid in its central role, novelist Eric Weiss -- Ricky to his old friends back in Brooklyn -- played by area favorite Avi Hoffman in one of his best performances in memory. Weiss, a self-loathing Jew, has turned his back on his religion, is impatient with his father who lies dying of cancer in a Brooklyn hospital and pays attention to his shiksa wife Nina only when she demands a divorce from him. In short, Eric is not particularly endearing, but Hoffman manages to earn some audience empathy for him with his own natural likeability.

It is after a visit to the hospital, with his new best-selling book -- also titled Brooklyn Boy -- in hand, eager for father’s approval, that Eric confronts his past. In the hospital cafeteria, he encounters a childhood friend, Ira Zimmer (the engaging, ethnically authentic Michael Gioia), who becomes annoyed at Eric’s condescending attitude about his native borough, but flattered that he inspired a minor character in the novel.

Ira will return for the moving conclusion of the second act, but before he does, Margulies sends Eric off on book tour to Los Angeles, where he is a stranger in a strange land fending off a young, attractive groupie in his hotel room. And later, it a scene that is too broad and obvious, he takes a meeting about a movie adaptation of his novel and learns how crass Hollywood can be. Director St. Leon should have guided her actors to play against the comedy instead of taking a sitcom approach, but Brooklyn Boy still snaps back with an impact as Margulies and Eric return to firmer ground on the East Coast.

Credit Parade Productions with the smarts to hire scenic designer Sean McClelland, who comes up with a multi-location unit dominated by the Brooklyn Bridge. It is a visual reminder that no matter where he goes, Eric remains under the gravitational pull of his hometown.

Overall, the evening is uneven, but the play’s strengths are sufficient to overcome such weaknesses. Parade is a welcome addition to the theatrical landscape, though it has announced a cautious approach to establishing itself, with its next production expected a year from now.

BROOKLYN BOY, Parade Productions at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets: $30. Available at: www.paradeproductions.org.

At one end of Palm Beach County, at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, we are told that “Life is a cabaret, old chum.” At the other end, at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre, it turns out that life is actually more like professional wrestling.

The latter news flash comes from Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist that examines the scripted “sport” for what it has to say about contemporary America.

Of course there are winners and losers, as in every sport, but pro wrestling has athletes who make their living as fall guys. And not necessarily because they are less skilled, but because they have been cast as the loser to satisfy the blood-thirsty, xenophobic and often racist tendencies of the fans.

Diaz focuses on one such perpetual loser. No, not the title character, who represents all that is triumphant, if hollow, about America. Instead the play is narrated by the guy paid to make Chad Deity look good, a Bronx-born Puerto Rican named Macedonio Guerra -- a/k/a Mace -- a guy so destined for defeat that he doesn’t even rate an entrance, elaborate or otherwise, into the ring.

At the bone-crunching, brawny area premiere production at the Caldwell, Mace is played by Brandon Morris, who handles most of the substantial verbal chores and, almost as importantly, is quick with an ad-lib comeback to theatergoers, who are encouraged to talk back to the cast. By the first Saturday night of the run, Morris and the cast were not getting much response from the crowd to play off, though they soldiered on gamely nevertheless.

The play takes place on and around a Tim Bennett-designed wrestling ring, which is flanked by two giant-sized video monitors, on which are often projected closed-circuit live images of the matches produced and promoted by THE Wrestling, the dominant sports media circus in Chad’s world. Presiding over the ring is Everett K. Olson, owner and orchestrator of THE Wrestling, a man well attuned to the public’s hunger for ethnic stereotypes.

There Mace introduces a new fall guy, a Brooklynite of Indian extraction, turned into a cross-cultural villain known simply as The Fundamentalist. He too will know the faux-wrath of Chad Deity’s signature wrestling move, the “power bomb,” a slam to the mat from Chad’s shoulders. (Actors do have good hazard insurance, don’t they?)

As Chad, Donte Bonner gets by on his winning smile, offhanded manner and buff physique. Gregg Weiner oozes slime as Olson and Adam Bashian amuses as the Indian, whose career in wrestling seems doomed by his unfortunate habit of freezing up -- in the ring.

Ultimately, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is not as profound as its Pulitzer attention would suggest, but it is rock-’em-sock-’em theatrical and on target to gain the Caldwell a new younger audience.

THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY, Caldwell Theatre Co., 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets: $38-$50. Call: (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432.

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Chad Deity oozes originality, while the production of Cabaret at the Maltz Jupiter feels like what it is -- a recreation of a revival from almost 14 years ago.

It was a very effective reconsideration of the great John Kander-Fred Ebb-Joe Masteroff show about decadent pre-World War II Berlin, but virtually nothing has been added now by director BT McNicholls, who has staged this version many times over the years.

Perhaps that should not matter, particularly to theatergoers who have never seen Cabaret or never seen this darker, more chilling take on the material -- originally devised by Sam Mendes -- but such a cloned production hardly seems in keeping with the homegrown work on which this theater prides itself.

That impression is only compounded by the casting of a few key performers who are veterans of that Mendes revival. Kate Shindle played unstable, apolitical Kit Kat Club headliner Sally Bowles on Broadway, and Christopher Sloan has played the smarmy, androgynous Emcee on tour. She is quite good at the Maltz and he is even better, but if you have the impression that you are watching one more stop of a newly assembled road company, you are not alone.

More so than in other productions, the Emcee is at the center of the show, insinuates himself into most of the musical numbers, at least tangentially, acting as much stage manager as showman and fuzzing the line between onstage and off.

Even the conventional story numbers -- as opposed to the presentational club songs -- are often given a post-modern spin. Cabaret broke a lot of barriers originally, but the scenes between Sally and American would-be novelist Cliff Bradshaw, and especially those between Cliff’s landlady Fraulein Schneider and her beau, Jewish fruit seller Herr Schultz, still smack of musical theater formula. But that does not stop them from having deep emotional impact.

The score is quintessential Kander and Ebb -- tuneful, but usually with a knife twist. The opening number, Wilkommen, is sung here with as much aggressive anger as any mood-setting opening number in musical theater. Tomorrow Belongs to Me begins as an anthem of optimism, but ultimately portent of world domination. And the title tune sounds like an upbeat embrace of life, but is delivered with a diametrically opposite subtext.

Shindle handles that number powerfully, delineating Sally’s emotional breakdown, and she also grabs us by the throat with a simple, aching rendition of Maybe This Time. She succeeds in the role, though she comes off as too assured to be fully convincing as rudderless Sally. Instead the evening belongs to leering Sloan, whose seductive, crotch-grabbing edginess defines the production.

This is not the Cabaret that first took Broadway in 1966, but nor does it fully belong to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.

CABARET, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, Jan. 29. Tickets: $43-$60. Call: (561) 575-2223.

Don’t men go to the theater anymore?

Scan the current audiences at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse, or the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, and you would swear the answer is a resounding “No.” Not only are there almost no men in attendance, but the shows on view -- Divorce Party The Musical and Love, Loss and What I Wore -- are so female-centric, so calculated for “girls’ night out” group sales, that guys seemingly need not apply.

Still, there are distinct qualitative differences between the two shows. The former, a raunchy intervention bash for a recent divorcee, is the brainchild of the producer of Menopause The Musical, one of the most artistically impoverished stage pieces to ever become an international commercial success. The latter is great theatrical literature by comparison, though it is actually just a pleasant string of monologues and group readings about the clothes women allow themselves to be defined and confined by.

Based on a book by Ilene Beckerman, then filtered through the sensibilities of sisters Nora and Delia Ephron, Love, Loss has been playing off-Broadway since October 2009, with a rotating cast of female performers who sit on stools and read, from music stands, reminiscences about fashion anguish that strike undeniable chords with the crowd.

The mere mention of a Kelly bag -- that high-priced Hermes-level purse popularized by Grace Kelly in the 1950s -- sent murmurs of recognition through the audience. But even the completely fashion-challenged, like me, can appreciate the show’s gentle comic manner and well-calibrated poignancy.

The touring production at the Parker Playhouse is a little short on box office name power, but not on talent. Loretta Swit of TV’s M*A*S*H is probably the biggest name of the quintet, though she seemed removed from the group, reduced largely to announcing the titles of subject segments and playing one continuing character, a serial bride and divorcee.

Sesame Street veteran Sonia Manzano delivered a touching monologue on surviving breast cancer and the indignities of breast reconstruction. Daisy Eagan (Tony Award winner for The Secret Garden) and Emily Dorsch were well-paired on a piece about the difficulties of finding a suitable wedding dress, and Myra Lucretia Taylor was a standout with a rant against purses. Either it was the best-written segment of the show or she made it seem so.

Love, Loss and What I Wore is hardly a must-see event, but pleasant enough that you will not mind having taken the plunge. And that goes for male theatergoers, too.

On the other hand, Divorce Party The Musical seems cynically devised to attract the Menopause audience and cash in on that earlier show’s success. It too relies on parody lyrics to existing pop songs to celebrate female empowerment.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but the new show manages to make its predecessor look good, sinking as it does to even crasser depths, with songs and skits about shaving one’s pubic hair and the joys of battery-operated vibrators and other sex toys. As if that were not titillating enough, Divorce Party features a male stripper going full monty just after the show’s finale, which is one way to eliminate the usual Kravis stampede to the exits during the curtain calls.

The show stems from a book by Boca Raton divorce coach Amy Botwinick, titled Congratulations on Your Divorce -- The Road to Finding Your Happily Ever After. Whatever the message of that self-help book may be, it is reduced here to bonding with your female friends, have a makeover and start living again.

The stage show concerns recently uncoupled Linda (Janna Cardia), who has sought solace from her marriage in containers of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and bags of Doritos. Enter her divorced therapist sister Carolyn (Felicia Finley), her playing-the-field lesbian cousin Courtney (Janet Dickinson) and her close friend Sheila (Soara-Joye Ross), whose marriage is shaky at best.

They try to rouse her from her stupor, in part by introducing her to a male yoga teacher, a tango instructor and a beauty consultant, all played by Scott Ahearn, who also gets the stripper assignment.

As with Menopause The Musical, director/lyricist Jay Falzone opts for fairly predictable rhymes and rarely develops anything past the single joke of the initial verse. In truth, none of the audience members I observed seemed to mind the uninspired writing.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about Divorce Party is that the audience appeared to be adequately entertained by it, so there is reason to believe it could become as successful as Menopause.

LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE, Parker Playhouse, 707 N.E. 8th St., Fort Lauderdale. Continuing through Sunday. Tickets: $37-$57. Call 954-462-0222.

DIVORCE PARTY THE MUSICAL, Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Continuing through Sunday, Feb. 19. Tickets: $25-$32. Call: (561) 832-7469 or (800) 572-8471.

Husky-voiced singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway has appeared eight times at the Colony Hotel’s Royal Room before her current engagement this week. While she has been much acclaimed, something was missing previously: Her younger sister Liz.

That has now been rectified with an 80-minute set, continuing through Saturday, that samples all three of the cabaret shows the sisters Callaway have concocted -- Sibling Revelry, Relative Harmony and Boom! Individually, they are very entertaining performers, but together their voices blend exquisitely and their faux-jealousy over each other’s achievements is bitchy fun.

The evening opens with a duet called Here Come the Callaways, a peppy piece of special material penned by Ann that cleverly likens them to other family acts, from the Jacksons to the Brontes to the Kardashians. Not long after, they attack Cole Porter’s Friendship, a celebration of camaraderie, undercut by numerous cutting remarks between the lyrics.

On occasion, they cede the stage to one another for some standout solo turns. Ann, who tends toward jazz, demonstrated her facility for scat singing on Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes, about growing up as a hipster, accompanying herself with vocal impressions of a trumpet, saxophone and other instruments.

Liz, the younger, shorter, thinner sister, has concentrated much of her career on the Broadway stage, including debuting in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. It is almost a cliché for a theatrical cabaret performer to pay tribute to the vocally and musically complex composer-lyricist, and Liz seemed headed right for such a misstep.

Instead, after seeming to blank on the words to Company’s triphammer Another Hundred People, she launched into a send-up of the challenge of singing Sondheim -- Another Hundred Lyrics Just Went Out of My Brain. Incorporating the tempo-shifting challenge of several of his songs, the clever number was every bit as difficult as the real thing and Liz handled it flawlessly.

Boom!, their latest show, takes them both out of their familiar territory to songs of the ‘60s and ‘70s -- Baby Boomer pop hits. Here, they continued the sibling theme, combining their voices on The Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, which lost nothing in the translation. And Liz got the crowd going on a pair of Petula Clark tunes -- I Know a Place and Downtown, complete with a bit of audience sing-along.

Surely the standout selection of the evening was The Huge Medley from Sibling Revelry, a collection of female duets, mostly from the theater, including Bosom Buddies from Mame; Liz’s featured number from Miss Saigon, I Still Believe; and A Boy Like That, from West Side Story. Without sacrificing anything musically, the two performers often planted their tongues firmly in cheek with over-the-top histrionics.

Ann Hampton Callaway is a terrific solo act, but if you are a fan of hers, you owe it to yourself to see her kick her game up a few notches when she performs with little sister Liz.

ANN HAMPTON and LIZ CALLAWAY, Colony Hotel Royal Room, 155 Hammon Ave., Palm Beach. Through Saturday. $115-$125 for prix fixe dinner and show. $55-$65 for show only. Call: (561) 659-8100.

If you have the impression that 2011 was a particularly good year for Palm Beach County’s professional theater, you are right.

Or at least you agree with the judges -- full disclosure: that includes myself -- of the Carbonell Awards, now in its 36th season of recognizing excellence in South Florida stage productions.

Of the 98 nominations announced on Monday, 43 came from Palm Beach County shows. (Miami-Dade accounted for 28 and Broward was a close third at 27 nominations. Of those 43, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre copped an impressive 25.

The north county playhouse not only earned more nominations than any other company, but its recent production of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tied for the most nominations for a single show (9). Its stiffest competition for the awards may well come from the Maltz’s other popular and acclaimed musicals -- Crazy for You (8) and The Sound of Music (7).

Also well-positioned to receive some Carbonells is Palm Beach Dramaworks, which got eight nominations for its All My Sons, the inaugural production in its new Clematis Street home. It earned 10 nominations in all, with the other two coming for Beauty Queen of Leenane, the final production in its former theater.

The Caldwell Theatre’s six nominations were split between two productions -- Stuff (4) and Clybourne Park (2) -- which will be competing against each other for Best Production of a Play. Stuff is also up for Best New Work and Clybourne Park is in the running for Best Ensemble.

Bankrupt Florida Stage managed to receive two nominations, both for its final production ever, Carter W. Lewis’s The Cha-Cha of the Camel Spider, which will compete for Best New Work.

Beyond Palm Beach County, Actors’ Playhouse of Coral Gables walked off with 14 nominations, the second most of a single company. Seven of those came for its production of Hairspray, which failed to earn a slot in the Best Production of a Musical category. This marks the first time in many years that Actors’ Playhouse is not vying for the top musical award.

Similarly, Coral Gables’ GableStage did not land in the Best Production of a Play category for the first time in memory, even though its area premiere of Red was cited for director Joseph Adler and its two actors (Gregg Weiner, Ryan Didato).

The big nomination-getter in Broward County was Broward Stage Door, with 11 mentions, nine of them for its production of the musical Light in the Piazza. Also notable is the emergence of Promethean Theatre as a major competitor in the musical categories with its blood-drenched tuner, Song of the Living Dead. It has five nominations, including one for Best Production of a Musical.

In all, 13 professional companies received nominations, and 28 of the 68 eligible shows that opened during 2011 were recognized. The complete list of nominations for the 2012 Carbonells follows:

Best New Work

Brothers Beckett, David Michael Sirois, Alliance Theatre Lab

Captiva, Christopher Demos Brown, Zoetic Stage

The Cha-Cha of the Camel Spider, Carter W. Lewis, Florida Stage

Stuff, Michael McKeever, Caldwell Theatre Company

Best Production of a Play

All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

August: Osage County, Actors’ Playhouse

Clybourne Park, Caldwell Theatre Company

The Pillowman, Infinite Abyss

Stuff, Caldwell Theatre Company

Best Director of a Play

Joseph Adler, Red, GableStage

Jeffrey D. Holmes, The Pillowman, Infinite Abyss

J. Barry Lewis, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Stuart Meltzer, Captiva, Zoetic Stage

Richard Jay Simon, Side Effects, Mosaic Theatre

Best Actor in a Play

Ken Clement, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Actors’ Playhouse

Scott Douglas Wilson, The Pillowman, Infinite Abyss

Avi Hoffman, Superior Donuts, GableStage

Kenneth Tigar, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Gregg Weiner, Red, GableStage

Best Actress in a Play

Kati Brazda, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Elizabeth Dimon, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Annette Miller, August: Osage County, Actors’ Playhouse

Deborah Sherman, Side Effects, Mosaic Theatre

Laura Turnbull, August: Osage County, Actors’ Playhouse

Best Supporting Actor in a Play

Antonio Amadeo, The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider, Florida Stage

Marckenson Charles, Superior Donuts, GableStage

Mark Della Ventura, Brothers Beckett, Alliance Theatre Lab

Ryan Didato, Red, GableStage

Todd Allen Durkin, Captiva, Zoetic Stage

Best Supporting Actress in a Play

Barbara Bradshaw, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Renata Eastlick, Eclipsed, The Women’s Theatre Project

Elvire Emmanuelle, Eclipsed, The Women’s Theatre Project

Angie Radosh, Stuff, Caldwell Theatre Company

Laura Turnbull, Lombardi, Mosaic Theatre

Best Production of a Musical

Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Song of the Living Dead, Promethean Theatre

Best Director, Musical

Michael Leeds, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Margaret M. Ledford, Song of the Living Dead, Promethean Theatre

Mark Martino, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Mark Martino, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Marc Robin, The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Actor in a Musical

Matt Loehr, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

John Pinto, Jr., Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Michael Sharon , The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Dylan H. Thompson, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Best Actress in a Musical

Colleen Amaya, The Music Man, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Joline Mujica, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Vanessa Sonon, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Gabrielle Visser, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Catherine Walker, The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical

Clay Cartland, Song of the Living Dead, Promethean Theatre

Michael Brian Dunn, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Avi Hoffman, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Bruce Rebold, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Ryan Williams, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical

Julie Kleiner, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Avery Sommers, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Lara Hayhurst, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Natalie Ramirez, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

April Woodall, The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Musical Direction

Helen Gregory, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Kim Douglas Steiner , Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Aaron McAllister, The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

David Nagy, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Garrett Taylor, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Best Choreography

Chrissy Ardito, The Music Man, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Chrissy Ardito, Song of the Living Dead, Promethean Theatre

Barbara Flaten, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Mark Martino, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Shea Sullivan, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Scenic Design (Play or Musical)

Michael Amico, All My Sons, Palm BeachDramaworks

Tim Bennett, Stuff, Caldwell Theatre Company

Douglas Grinn, Lombardi, Mosaic Theatre

Sean McClelland, August: Osage County, Actors’ Playhouse

Michael Schweikardt, The Sound of Music, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Best Lighting Design (Play or Musical)

Paul Black, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

John Hall, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Andrew Myers, The Light in the Piazza, Broward Stage Door Theatre

Jeff Quinn, Red, GableStage

Patrick Tennent, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Actors’ Playhouse

Best Costume Design (Play or Musical)

Brian O’Keefe, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Jose M. Rivera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Ellis Tillman, Hairspray, Actors’ Playhouse

Ellis Tillman, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), GableStage

Ellis Tillman, Song of the Living Dead, Promethean Theatre

Best Sound Design (Play or Musical)

Victoria Deiorio, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Alexander Herrin, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Actors’ Playhouse

Keith Kohrs, Crazy for You, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Marty Mets, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Rich Szczublewski, All My Sons, Palm Beach Dramaworks

Best Ensemble

Brothers Beckett, Alliance Theatre Lab

The Brothers Size, GableStage

Clybourne Park, Caldwell Theatre Company

The Irish Curse, Mosaic Theatre

Masked, GableStage