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'Oklahoma!' and 'Mockingbird' big winners of Stage West HAMIs

 
The musical Peter Pan won the Stage West HAMI for Favorite Special.
The musical Peter Pan won the Stage West HAMI for Favorite Special.
Published July 29, 2015

SPRING HILL

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical classic Oklahoma! and the play based on the literary classic To Kill a Mockingbird were the big winners of the annual HAMI Awards given by Stage West Community Playhouse on Saturday.

Eight productions from the 2014-15 season were in the running — four musicals on the Main Stage and four plays in the Forum at Stage West. Awards were presented in 23 categories, plus the prestigious Founders Award. Nominations are made by the director of each show; winners are chosen by members of Stage West.

Oklahoma! won seven HAMIs, including Favorite Musical, while Mockingbird picked up six awards, including Favorite Play.

The musical Hairspray won four awards, including the top two acting awards of Lead Female in a Musical, Karli Gunderson as Tracy Turnblad, and Lead Male in a Musical, Dalton Benson in female dress as Tracy's corpulent mom, Edna Turnblad.

The season's other two musicals, Nuncrackers and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change were shutouts.

Even though Mockingbird took home most of the play division awards, the other three shows in the theater's season also were winners. The comedies Born Yesterday won three, and Greater Tuna won two; the comedy/farce Moonlight and Magnolias picked up one.

Stage West's equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award, called the Founders Award, went to longtime actor Betsy Glasson, who has won numerous HAMI awards, starting in 1993 with her win as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and most recently during the 2013-14 season as Jeri Neal in The Dixie Swim Club.

In the Youth Category, the musical Peter Pan won Favorite Special, while Rising Star awards went to Dakota Ruiz as Peter Pan and Victoria Hernandez in Nutcracker.