MOSCOW – "God may work miracles rarely," quipped one winner of a Golden Mask award at an elegant ceremony in the cavernous atrium of Gostiny Dvor on Friday, "but they happen every evening in the theater."

Golden Mask award ceremonies, of which there have now been 16, have not always been mentioned in one breath with miracles. Over the years the festival has had its share of scandals, embarrassments and slip-ups.

Those days are receding into the past. For the second year in a row, the annual spring rite of citing the best Russian artists and productions from the previous season unfolded in a smooth, attractive event. Its few minor glitches were easily overlooked, in part, perhaps, because the setting itself, an amphitheater combining elements of classical art and contemporary trash, was spectacularly beautiful.

In any case, by the time the 95-year-old Vladimir Zeldin joked about God, miracles and theater while accepting one of three Lifetime Achievement awards at the end of the ceremony, the audience consisting of Russia's theater elite seemed unusually satisfied with what had transpired.

It was an evening of big and popular winners, which also included enough surprises to keep things lively.

The hands-down victor was Moscow's Et Cetera Theater's production of Mel Brooks' musical The Producers. It took all four awards for which it was nominated – best musical actress (Nataliya Blagikh), best musical actor (Yegor Druzhinin), best musical director (Dmitry Belov) and best musical.

Accepting his award, Druzhinin admitted that he hadn't acted for some time and was unsure of taking on the role. "I always doubted that I was a good actor, and I'm now pleased to get this award because maybe I'm not that bad after all," he joked.

Et Cetera's artistic director, Aleksandr Kalyagin, thanking the jury for its recognition of his theater's excellence, pointed out what a feat it had been to mount such an expensive musical show in uncertain times. "We expended a great deal of effort," he said. "You understand what it means to stage a musical when an economic crisis hits."

The overall heavyweight winner among theaters was Moscow's Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater, which pulled down a total of five awards spread over two operas, Lucia di Lammermoor and Hamlet (Danish) (Russian) Comedy.

Ten Theater won the award for best puppet show for The Epic of Lilikan.

Khibla Gerzmava was a popular choice for best female singer for her role as Lucia in the show that also was named best opera. Yelena Stepanova was cited as best costume designer in a musical show for her work on Lucia.

Hamlet (Danish) (Russian) Comedy brought Aleksandr Titel an award for best director in a musical production, while the opera's author Vladimir Kobekin was named best composer.

The top winner in the field of drama was Shukshin's Stories, a production from Moscow's Theater of Nations, which was singled out as best large-scale production. Its star Yevgeny Mironov was named best actor, and Viktoriya Sevriukova pulled down best costume designer for the colorful garments that she created for this show about country folk in Siberia.

Joined by most of the show's cast on stage as he accepted the best production award, Latvian director Alvis Hermanis confessed that he would probably not have staged the show if he knew then what he knows now. "Rehearsals began, and I began to realize that Shukshin is like a relative to all Russians," he said.

Mironov added that, for the cast, the show is not a regular show at all, but an opportunity for each of the performers to reveal himself as a human being.

The best actress award went to Polina Kutyopova for her performance of Molly in Yevgeny Kamenkovich's six-hour dramatization of James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses at the Fomenko Studio. Kutyopova thanked Kamenkovich, her husband, for having both "patience and madness, because staging a work like that is madness."

The shortest speech of the night belonged to Yury Pogrebnichko, who was cited as best director for his work on La Strada at Okolo, the Theater Near the Stanislavsky House. After accepting the attractive plaque, which consists of a delicate glass mask attached to a mirrored background, Pogrebnichko leaned towards a microphone, tersely said "thank you," and ran back to his seat.

Sergei Zhenovach's Studio of Theatrical Art pulled in two awards for its production of The Potudan River. Damir Ismagilov was named best lighting designer for this piece, which featured light reflecting through wooden planks off of a white brick wall. The show itself was declared best small-scale production.

Two young pairs of artists brought an added breath of fresh air to the proceedings. Accepting the award for best puppet show for The Epic of Lilikan at the Ten Theater, the husband-and-wife team of Mariya Litvinova and Vyacheslav Ignatov performed a comic routine as they finished each other's phrases and Ignatov unfurled a six-meter scroll listing everyone he wished to thank but couldn't because of time restraints.

Moscow artists and theaters dominated the awards, winning 23 of the 36.

Perhaps the youngest winners of the night were Vera Martynova and Maria Tregubova, the duo of designers who created the environment for Opus No. 7 at the School of Dramatic Art. Tregubova was taken aback by the win and said, "I had no idea this would happen, so I didn't prepare any words. And I can't improvise any, either." Opus No. 7, created by director Dmitry Krymov and composer Alexander Bakshi, was cited winner of the experiment award.

Pavel Pryazhko's play Life Is Grand, which was jointly produced by the Playwright and Director Center and Teatr.doc, has raised hackles in some quarters for its profuse use of profanity. But it was a popular winner of a special drama jury award. Presenting a plaque to the show's co-directors, Mikhail Ugarov and Marat Gatzalov, jury chairman Anatoly Smelyansky pointed out that the show was unique for its subtle portrait of young people who "use only ten words" to express the full extent of their emotions and experiences.

Geographically, Moscow artists walked away with an unprecedented number of awards. Twenty-three of the total 36 were snatched up by theaters and performers from the Russian capital.

St. Petersburg came in second, although with its smallest number of awards ever – a total of six. These included Aleksei Ratmansky, best choreographer, and Alina Somova, best female dancer, for their work in The Little Humpbacked Horse for the Mariinsky Theater. Vsevolod Polonsky was named best conductor in a musical for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at St. Petersburg's Karambol Theater.

The city of Perm, which has made noises as a new provincial artistic center in recent years, made a strong showing with three different theaters pulling in four awards. Casting Off, a contemporary dance piece by the Yevgeny Panfilov Ballet of Perm, was named best contemporary dance production, while Aleksei Khoroshev was given the nod for best lighting designer for his work on the show. Valery Platonov was voted best conductor in an opera for his participation in A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for the Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theater of Perm, while Sergei Fedotov and his Theater u Mosta in Perm was given a special jury award for the contributions they have made to Russian theater over the last 20 years.