The longlist for 2013’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards has been announced, with co-stars from hit shows Othello, Old Times and Merrilly We Roll Along in the running to battle it out against one another for three of this year’s most coveted prizes.
Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear, who won critical and public acclaim for Nicholas Hynter’s Othello at the National Theatre, stars of the stage and screen Kristen Scott Thomas and Lia Williams, who alternated roles in Ian Rickson’s West End production of Old Times, and five star hit Merrilly We Roll Along’s Jenna Russell and Mark Umbers have all earned places alongside one another in the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Musical Performance categories respectively.
While the talented sextet may find themselves up against their co-stars when the shortlisted nominees are announced next month, other company’s will today be celebrating multiple nods for cast members with the leads of the National Theatre’s The Effect Jonjo O’Neill and Billie Piper, and Private Lives bickering couple Toby Stephens and Anna Chancellor all making the grade with nods to their popular performances across the award’s nine categories.
Leading multiple nominations however are directors Jamie Lloyd and Michael Grandage, whose innovative West End seasons have been recognised by this year’s awards in many of the categories. Lloyd earns a place in the Best Director list for his Trafalgar Transformed season, while Grandage is recognised for comedy Privates On Parade, which played as part of his ongoing Michael Grandage Company season at the Noel Coward theatre. Leading stars from their line-ups also appear with Lloyd’s Macbeth star James McAvoy and The Pride’s Harry Hadden-Paton making the Best Actor list, and Judi Dench, star of Grandage’s Best Play longlisted production of Peter And Alice, featuring in the Best Actress longlist.
In the hotly contended musical categories, West End productions The Book Of Mormon, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Once will battle for a place on the shortlist against the National Theatre’s long awaited Tori Amos tale The Light Princess, the Menier Chocolate Factory’s West End transferring Merrily We Roll Along, Regent’s Park Open Air theatre’s The Sound Of Music and fringe success Titanic.
Musical theatre will also take greater billing at this year’s awards with a brand new category for Best Musical Performance. Alongside Russell and Umbers, leading ladies Rosalie Craig (The Light Princess), Zrinka Cvitešić (Once), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Cecilia Noble (The Amen Corner) and Charlotte Wakefield (The Sound Of Music) dominate the category, joined by leading men Gavin Creel (The Book Of Mormon) and Douglas Hodge (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory).
Speaking about the awards, which will kick off the annual theatre prize season on 17 November with a star-studded ceremony at the Savoy theatre presented by Homeland star Damian Lewis, Sarah Sands, Editor of the Evening Standard, said: “This year more than any other, with so many London hits going to Broadway and so many big names in lights in the West End, it is a source of great pride that the Evening Standard continues its long support of theatre with this year’s awards.”
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards are judged by a panel including the newspaper chief theatre critic Henry Hitchings and fellow theatrical journalists Georgina Brown, Susannah Clapp, Libby Purves, Charles Spencer, Matt Wolf and Sands.
Full longlist:
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, A Season In The Congo (Young Vic)
Henry Goodman, The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui (Chichester Festival Theatre & Duchess)
Harry Hadden-Paton, The Pride (Trafalgar Studios)
John Heffernan, Edward II (National Theatre Olivier)
Lenny Henry, Fences (Theatre Royal Bath & Duchess)
Rory Kinnear, Othello (National Theatre Olivier)
Adrian Lester, Othello (National Theatre Olivier)
James McAvoy, Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios)
Jonjo O’Neill, The Effect (National Theatre Cottesloe)
Clarke Peters, Race (Hampstead)
Toby Stephens, Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre & Gielgud)
Tom Sturridge, No Quarter (Royal Court)
Dominic West, The River (Royal Court)
Benedict Wong, Chimerica (Almeida & Harold Pinter)
Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress
Linda Bassett, Roots (Donmar Warehouse)
Anna Calder-Marshall, The Herd (Bush)
Anna Chancellor, Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre & Gielgud)
Judi Dench, Peter And Alice (Noël Coward)
Lucy Ellinson, Grounded (Gate)
Lesley Manville, Ghosts (Almeida)
Helen Mirren, The Audience (Gielgud)
Billie Piper, The Effect (National Theatre Cottesloe)
Michelle Terry, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Kristin Scott Thomas, Old Times (Harold Pinter)
Harriet Walter, Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse)
Lia Williams, Old Times (Harold Pinter)
Best Play
The Audience, Peter Morgan (Gielgud)
Chimerica, Lucy Kirkwood (Almeida & Harold Pinter)
Cocktail Sticks, (Alan Bennett, National Theatre Lyttelton)
The Dark Earth And The Light Sky, Nick Dear (Almeida)
The Effect, Lucy Prebble (National Theatre Cottesloe)
Handbagged, Moira Buffini (Tricycle)
The Night Alive, Conor McPherson (Donmar Warehouse)
Peter And Alice, John Logan (Noël Coward)
The River, Jez Butterworth (Royal Court)
Table, Tanya Ronder (National Theatre Shed)
Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
The Book Of Mormon (Prince of Wales)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane)
The Light Princess (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory & Harold Pinter)
Once (Phoenix)
The Sound Of Music (Regent’s Park Open Air)
Titanic (Southwark Playhouse)
Best Director
Stephen Daldry, The Audience (Gielgud)
Richard Eyre, Ghosts (Almeida)
Rupert Goold, The Effect (National Theatre Cottesloe)
Michael Grandage, Privates On Parade (Noël Coward)
Nicholas Hytner, Othello (National Theatre Olivier)
Jonathan Kent, Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre & Gielgud)
Jamie Lloyd, Trafalgar Transformed (Trafalgar Studios)
Phyllida Lloyd, Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse)
James Macdonald, Roots (Donmar Warehouse)
Rufus Norris, The Amen Corner (National Theatre Olivier)
Ian Rickson, Old Times (Harold Pinter)
Josie Rourke, The Weir (Donmar Warehouse)
Lyndsey Turner, Chimerica (Almeida & Harold Pinter)
Best Design
Felix Barrett, Livi Vaughan & Beatrice Minns, The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable (Punchdrunk at Temple Studios)
Lizzie Clachan, Port (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Bob Crowley, People (National Theatre Lyttelton), The Audience (Gielgud) & Once (Phoenix)
Es Devlin, Chimerica (Almeida)
Tim Hatley (design) & Peter Mumford (lighting), Ghosts (Almeida)
Christopher Oram, Michael Grandage Company season (Noël Coward)
Rae Smith, The Light Princess (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Hildegard Bechtler, Roots (Donmar Warehouse)
Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright
Rachel De-lahay, Routes (Royal Court)
Rory Kinnear, The Herd (Bush)
Nathaniel Martello-White, Blackta (Young Vic)
Janice Okoh, Three Birds (Bush)
Jessica Swale, Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Anna Wakulik, A Time To Reap (Royal Court)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag (Soho)
Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer
Daniel Boyd, 4000 Miles (Print Room)
Caoilfhionn Dunne, The Night Alive (Donmar Warehouse)
Max Irons, Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse)
Jennifer Kirby, Pride And Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air)
Seth Numrich, Sweet Bird Of Youth (Old Vic)
Kate O’Flynn, Port (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Luke Thompson, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Olivia Vinall, Othello (National Theatre Olivier)
Best Musical Performance
Rosalie Craig, The Light Princess (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Gavin Creel, The Book Of Mormon (Prince of Wales)
Zrinka Cvitešić, Once (Phoenix)
Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple (Menier Chocolate Factory)
Douglas Hodge, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane)
Cecilia Noble, The Amen Corner (National Theatre Olivier)
Jenna Russell, Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory & Harold Pinter)
Mark Umbers , Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory & Harold Pinter)
Charlotte Wakefield, The Sound Of Music (Regent’s Park Open Air)