The Carbonell Awards Cerermony, 2008

I'd like to be able to write of my own experience of the Carbonell Awards; after all, I helped put them together this year. But sadly, I wasn't able to attend due to my work schedule. I did stay to meet and greet my many colleagues and friends who attended, but I left as soon as the event was seated; I had to return before dawn to coordinate the Symphony of the Americas setup the following morning.

The Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald both covered the event; I was even able to eventually find where the Palm Beach Post hid their story on it. But none of them covered it like Brandon K. Thorpe of the New Times covered it:

....most people do not look like Tara Vodihn, and discussing the brute facts of the Carbonells may well be less pleasant than an idle contemplation of Tara’s overwhelming hotness.

While I personally don't find Thorpe to be a particularly reliable theatre reviewer, he is certainly the most entertaining read. At his best, it's not thoughtful theater critique so much as gonzo journalism. Where Bill Hirschman and Christine Dolan report the winners and losers, Brandon comments on Who Got Robbed.

He and Christine Dolan commented briefly on the actual ceremony itself, which is of particular interest to me (I was the Production Coordinator who worked with the new producer of the event, Wizard Entertainment). Typically, it's tough to get the event started anywhere close to the advertised time, and then it always drags over the alloted schedule. But this year, we got the show started five minutes late, and ran only fifteen minutes over the planned two hours and fifteen minutes. I actually was hugged this morning by someone for the improvements they saw in the production. So I was very interested to read their impressions.

Christine Dolan writes in her blog:

...the awards show itself was a bit more low key but classier and more efficient than in some years past.

Brandon's take was, predictably, quite...different:

... the ceremonies ... wobbled from “totally inspired” to “fucking dumb.”

Both of them liked the talent involved, but Brandon wasn't too keen on Christine Andreas serving as the Master of Ceremonies, because "Remind me—Christine Andreas has what to do with South Florida?" Well, at least as much as Florence Henderson, Rupert Holmes, and Jonathon Rhys-Davies, all former emcees for the event.

If you attended the awards, please do leave comments one what you liked - or didn't - about this year's event.