MAXINE LAPIDUSS
PERFORMER OF THE YEAR

The 7th Annual Ticket Holder Awards

Maxine Lapiduss in Situation Tragedy. One of those special categories created for someone not quite squeezable into any other? You bet. As the co-writer and non-stop driver of this one-woman show-with-chorus-boys-and-a-teenaged-alter-ego, Ms. Lapiduss can't simply be called a comedy writer, an actress, a cabaret singer, an impressionist or a stand-up comic. Her work skewering herself to the Sticking Place, not to mention her own sexual orientation and just about all of the Hollywood TV industry in which she so successfully coexists, proved the bravest, most hilarious and memorable stage performance of the year.

You'll find my choices for the best stage productions of the year in L.A. in last week's issue with the other Top 10 Entertainment Today awardees, but here's the spot for recognizing the best in acting, direction and writing. You'll get a couple of surprises her, so her goes:

WRITER OF A PLAY: Tom Stoppard for Arcadia, the Taper. Runners-up: David Hare, Skylight, the Taper; Roger Kumble, d girl, Century City Playhouse; Maxine Lapiduss, Situation Tragedy, Globe Playhouse; and Jose Rivera, The Street of the Sun, the Taper.