Finally! The theatre award season in the Londoner West End has officially begun! The winners of the Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards were announced in early February and next up, is the award ceremony for the WhatsOnStage awards. While the picks of the Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards are based on (as the name suggests) theatre critics, the upcoming WhatsOnStage awards are solely based on the public’s opinion. Even better, for these awards, the fans and passionate theatre lovers have the chance to nominate their favourite plays, actors, and directors in the first place. The ceremony will be held at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London on Sunday March 1, and will be broadcast live on BBC radio 2.
The past year (all UK productions between December 2018 and end of November 2019 are eligible to be part, with some exceptions) has been packed with new and enthralling theatre productions and musicals with the potential to stay in your head for days and absolute star power.
Category Nominees For Plays
The above is very much reflected in the nominations, as you will for example know most of the names in the category for Best Actor in a Play; Tom Hiddleston, for his performance in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal which then transferred to Broadway and continued to delight audiences across the pond is surely one of the general favourites. Nominated in the same category is Andrew Scott for his role in Present Laughter by Noёl Coward, which was broadcasted into movie theatres worldwide as a National Theatre Live production.
As if Loki and the Hot Priest weren’t enough to get the British theatre audience excited, the line-up was joined by none other than the twelfth Doctor, Matt Smith, who gave a breathtaking performance in Lungs, a play written by Duncan Macmillan. The other nominees in this category are Laurie Kynaston, who won the Emerging Talent category at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards last year and is now nominated for his role in The Son, and Wendell Pierce who some of you might know for his role as Robert Zane in the TV show, Suits. Wendell is nominated for his acting in Death of a Salesman, which was so popular during its first run at the Young Vic theatre, that it transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre for a second run. The Critic’s voted on Andrew Scott to receive this award, however it is always important to bear in mind that the public can be unpredictable in their voting and that the result for the WhatsOnStage awards might differ.
If you think that this category has been exciting, please hold on to your – probably imaginary, if not I applaud you for wearing one right now – hats, as we dive into the Best Actress in a Play category. There are five powerful women nominated in this category, which funnily enough are in the same productions as their male counterparts for the most part. Starting with Betrayal, in which Zawe Ashton (Sally Donovan from Sherlock anyone?) is nominated for her main role. Marvel’s Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell is nominated for her (absolutely stunning, STUNNING, if I may say so myself) portrayal in the political play Rosmersholm.
Olivier Award-winner Juliet Stevenson is considered for her acting in The Doctor, which started out as a five-star and sold-out production at the Almeida theatre and will transfer to the Duke of York’s theatre from April 2020 (there is your chance to go see greatness, guys!). Actress Sharon D Clarke, who has had a minor role in Doctor Who as Grace O’Brien, is nominated for her contribution to the play Death of a Salesman. In addition, Claire Foy, who is nominated for her performance in Lungs, has become a superstar for her fantastic portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, where, incidentally, she also plays alongside Matt Smith. For the Critics, two actresses deserved the title of the best, and so both Sharon D Clarke and Juliet Stevenson got to take home an award for their roles. I personally predict a win for Claire Foy at the WhatsOnStage awards, but it wouldn’t be the first time the public vote proves me wrong.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Play are Hammed Animashaun for A Midsummer Night’s Deam, Charlie Cox for Betrayal, Hareet Deol for My Beautiful Launrette, Giles Terera for Rosmersholm (he won the Olivier award for his role as Aaron Burr (Hamilton) in 2018) and Alexander Vlahos for his role in Peter Plan (where are my Merlin geeks at?). In this category, I must admit that I am incredibly biased as I personally voted for Giles Terera in Rosmersholm. I have not seen all of these productions but Terera’s performance shook me to the core and left me shaking and with tears in my eyes and I think often about the moment just seconds before the lights went out.
In the category Best Supporting Actress in a Play, we have not one, but two women from Present Laughter. Both Sophie Thompson and Indira Varma gave hilarious performances and my personal suggestion is that you should definitely try to catch a performance of the play at your local cinema should they still show the NTlive production. For All About Eve, Monica Dolan is nominated for an award and Isabella Pappas’ performance in Appropriate stood out to theatre lovers as well. And last but not least, Ria Zmitrowicz is nominated for The Doctor.
Adding a little more pep, dance and music to the performances, let’s dive into the category’s for Musicals.
For the category Best Actress in a Musical, we have Tracie Bennett for her performance in Mame, Lucie Jonas and Katharine McPhee for the West End transfer of Waitress, Zizi Strallen in Mary Poppins and Miriam-Teak Lee in &Juliet. Due to the large success of &Juliet in the UK, my expectation is that Miriam-Teak Lee will take this one home.
In the category Best Actor in a Musical, David Hunter is nominated for his role in Waitress, Charlie Stemp for Mary Poppins, Oliver Tompsett for &Juliet, Sam Tutty for the West End Transfer of Dear Evan Hansen and Jac Yarrow for his performance in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At the Critics Circle Awards, Sam Tutty was awarded the title of Most Promising Newcomer, which I must not only agree with but also admit that I have voted for him without hesitation. While I had an amazing time watching Waitress and &Juliet for example, Sam Tutty absolutely crushed me with his talent. Of course, the subject matter, the role itself and the songs have a very large influence on that but it can’t be denied that Tutty is an amazing actor who will make you feel exactly what he wants you to feel at any given moment just by the tremble of his hand.
While I don’t want to withhold any of the amazing nominees from you, I also don’t want to bore you to death by repeating myself over and over, which is why I am speeding things up a little:
Chances for an award in the category Best Supporting Actor in a Musical have Oscar Colon-Morrey (Only Fool and Horses the Musical), Jason Donovan (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamboat), Jordan Luke Gage (&Juliet), Jack Loxton (Dear Evan Hansen) and Joe Sugg (Waitress). For Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, the nominees are Laura Baldwin and Marisha Wallace (Waitress), Cassidy Janson and Melanie La Barrie (&Juliet) and Rachel Tucker (Come From Away).
As Best Play (either as in the New Play or the Revival categories), the following shows have a chance to win the sought-after trophy: Appropriate, The Doctor, Life of Pi, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Son, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Betrayal, Death of a Salesman, Lungs and Present Laughter. These shows could win for Best Musical (either as a New Musical or Revival): &Juliet, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Only Fool and Horses the Musical, Waitress, 9 to 5 the Musical, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Mame and Mary Poppins.
Overall, there are thirty-eight amazing shows nominated in twenty-three categories, but some productions just have a higher chance of winning than others due to their numerous nominations. The production with the most nominations is by far is the new Musical &Juliet which starts at the point where Shakespeare stops… only in a scenario where Juliet does not kill herself that is. It is a feel good musical about friendship, love (but not in the way you’d expect), about finding yourself and about staying true to who you are. Amazing actors and well-known pop songs you will all know by Max Martin (including but not limited to: I want it that way, Roar and Domino) bring all of this to you with great choreography, costume design and set design. Which are three of the award categories the show might be able to snatch a trophy for. The Musical &Juliet is nominated for a whooping number of 13 WhatsOnStage awards.
Present Laughter and Evita also have good chances to take several awards home with them, as both are nominated in eight categories each, followed by Waitress with seven award nominations.
Even though Matt Smith and Claire Foy are favourites in their respective categories, Lungs is overall ‘only’ nominated for four awards and Betrayal sticks to their nominations for their three actors. Three is the name number of nominations the political drama Rosmersholm received with Hayley Atwell nominated for best actress.
It is going to be exciting to see what the theatre lovers of London (and the world) thought of the productions nominated and how they voted, especially with regard to the Olivier awards (the British acting Oscars, if you so will), which will be held in June. I hope you are as excited about the results as I am and will tune in to listen the broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on March 1! If not, rest assured, that The Nerd Daily has your back and will report on the most important events of the evening.
