Carbonell Awards Honor Local Theater in Boca Raton November 17

The 48^th annual Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s theater and arts honors — the region’s version of Broadway’s Tony Awards — will host their ceremony at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) University Theatre in Boca Raton on Monday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m. This is the first Carbonell Awards ceremony to be held in Palm Beach County since 1997.

As many as 500 actors, musicians, performers, writers, directors, backstage technicians, producers, reviewers, designers, specialty artists and diehard theater fans are expected to attend, and tickets are on sale now.

The fabulous evening celebrating local stars of the stage is being produced by Andrew Kato, longtime producing artistic director and CEO at the Maltz Jupiter Theater, who served as creative consultant and coordinating producer on Broadway’s Tony Awards for 13 years.

Eight Special Awards will be presented, including the prestigious George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts to William Hayes and Sue Ellen Beryl, co-founders of Palm Beach Dramaworks, which recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary of producing Theatre to Think About.

The Carbonell Awards will also present the first Jan McArt Award, named after the “First Lady of South Florida Theater” who helmed several local theaters including the popular Royal Palm Dinner Theatre in Mizner Park. This new Special Award recognizes “significant achievement by a small theater” and is being presented to the Boward-based New City Players.

At this year’s ceremony, awards will be presented in 20 competitive categories for the 2024-2025 theater season. Collectively, 129 nominations are distributed among 36 professional productions at 19 different theaters in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Maltz Jupiter Theatre has 24 nominations, Slow Burn Theatre Company earned 23, Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre and GableStage garnered 11 each, Arca Images and Miami New Drama both grabbed nine, with seven nominations each going to Broadway at LPAC, New City Players, and Theatre Lab.

The GableStage production of Appropriate earned the most individual nominations with 10 total, followed by Lincoln Road Hustle by Miami New Drama with nine, and Anastasia at Slow Burn Theatre Company, Jersey Boys at the Actors’ Playhouse, and The Lehman Trilogy at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre all getting eight each.

Tickets for the award ceremony and after-party are $45 and can be purchased online at FAUevents.com, or by contacting the FAU Box Office at 561-297-6124.

Learn more about the Carbonell Awards at carbonellawards.org.