You would think the bright-lights-and-red-carpet thing would be getting old for the Knechtges family.

Not on your life, according to Ingrid Knechtges, mother of 1990 Midview High grad Dan Knechtges, who’s following up his Broadway success as a choreographer of the Tony-nominated “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” with his first-ever Tony nomination as a choreographer for the current stage hit “Xanadu.”

COURTESY KNECHTGES FAMILY

The Knechtges family. including father, Dan, Tony-nominated choreographer Dan, mother Ingrid and sister Kristy Ostrica at last year’s Broadway opening of “Xanadu.”

Knechtges, 36, and his mom will walk arm-in-arm on the red carpet into New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall on Sunday night for the 2008 Tony Awards, which will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m.

“I’m his date for the evening,” said Ingrid Knechtges, who now lives in Avon.  

And yes, she did buy a new outfit for the occasion.

“It’s a black, off-the-shoulder taffeta gown. This is a black-tie affair, so it’s long.”

And her son even bought a new tux.

“The only one he had, he wore for high school choir and college.”

The rest of the family, including father Don, and sister Kristy Ostrica, a theater and drama program teacher at Lake Ridge Academy, will also be at Radio City but will be sitting a little farther back in the orchestra seats. All four get to take part in a big post-Tony party.

Mom will get a pre-show taste of the Tonys during a run-through Sunday morning when nominees and others find out how they’ll have to line up for Sunday night’s gala.

This is the first time Knechtges, a 1994 musical theater graduate of Otterbein College, has been nominated for a Tony.

But he has been caught up in Tony excitement before. “Spelling Bee,” for which he also did the choreography, earned six nominations and won two awards — for “Best Book of a Musical” (Rachel Sheinkin) and for “Best Featured Actor in a Musical” (Dan Fogler).

“Xanadu,” a parody of the 1980 movie musical that starred Olivia Newton-John as a Greek muse incarnated as a girl who inspires a frustrated artist to build a huge disco roller rink, opened at Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway last July.

“It has a lot of the same plot, and all of the same music,” Ingrid Knechtges said.

“Xanadu” has also been nominated for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. It is up against “Cry-Baby,” “In The Heights” and “Passing Strange.” And Kerry Butler in the Olivia Newton-John role has been nominated for Best Actress.

Knechtges will barely be able to enjoy the Tonys, much less a win, before he jets off to Germany on Monday to resume rehearsals for a musical comedy set to open in Berlin on Dec. 7. That show takes humorous swipes at the American Western.

To read more about Dan Knechtges, visit his Web site, www.danknechtges.com.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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