You know it's been an interesting year in Philadelphia theater when Bronson Pinchot gets nominated for a Barrymore. But forget Balki. This year's nominees for the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater, administered by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and announced on Aug. 10 at the Arts Bank, were, as usual, a reminder of the wealth of Philadelphia theater talent.

The Arden Theatre swept the nominations with a record-setting 25 nods, including two in one of the biggest categories: Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical for Sweeney Todd and A Year with Frog and Toad. Rounding out that category: The Big Bang (Act II Playhouse), Chasing Nicolette (Prince Music Theater) and Elegies: A Song Cycle (Philadelphia Theatre Company).

Nominees for Outstanding Overall Production of a Play were The Clean House (Wilma Theater), Recent Tragic Events (1812 Productions), String of Pearls (The People's Light & Theatre Company), Take Me Out (Philadelphia Theatre Company) and Trumbo (Philadelphia Theatre Company).

A touching moment came with the announcement that the late Jilline Ringle was nominated for her performance in 1812 Productions' Always A Lady: A Celebration of Funny Women for the Holidays. Sharing the outstanding leading actress category were Stephanie Berry, Madi Distefano, Juliette Dunn and Catharine K. Slusar. Jamie Harris, Bill Irwin, John Keating, Jered McLenigan and Ernest Perry, Jr. were up for outstanding leading actor in a play, while leading actor in a musical nods went to Richard Amelius, Tony Braithwaite, Ben Dibble, Thom Sesma and the aforementioned star of Perfect Strangers. Nominees for leading actress in a musical were Audri T. Dalio, Sherri L. Edelen, Mary Martello, Donna Migliaccio and Jasika Nicole Pruitt.

Ben Dibble, Madi Distefano, Matt Saunders, Geoff Sobelle and James Sugg were nominated for the F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Theatre Artist. Theatre Exile and Reconstruction Pictures received the Ted and Stevie Wolf Award for New Approaches to Collaborations for their production of the movie Cellar, which debuted at this year's Philadelphia Film Festival.

Longtime Villanova theater professor and popular director James J. Christy received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

A full list of nominees is available at www.theateralliance.org.

Theatre Alliance executive director James Haskins kept everyone at the Arts Bank — including a whole lot of potential nominees — in suspense while he and Ben Cameron, executive director of the national Theatre Communications Group, announced a new campaign called Theater Is Alive and its inaugural event, Free Night of Theater, in which participating theaters will offer free tickets to new audience members on Oct. 20. Philadelphia is one of only three cities to take part in this initiative. More to come in a later issue.