Cate Blanchett, Anne-Marie Duff, Rupert Everett, Adrian Lester, Eddie Redmayne, Joely Richardson, Michael Sheen, Sheridan Smith and David Suchet are among the stage stars tipped
The London Evening Standard today unveils the longlist for its 2012 Theatre Awards, presented for the first time this year in association with Burberry.
· In a remarkable year for Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre, it leads the longlist with 22 entries; followed by the Royal Court with 13.
· With four nods, the most longlistedplay this year is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel about a boy with Asperger’s.
· Olympic Closing Ceremony set designer Es Devlin is longlisted in the Design category for The Master and the Margarita, at the Complicite at the Barbican.
· Eddie Redmayne, Simon Paisley Day and Michael Sheen battle it out for Best Actor with their leading Shakespeare roles in Richard II, Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet.
· It is a good year for women, with inaugural productions from new female artistic directors recognised and a host of stellar performances in strong female roles.
· This year a new award has been announced with the Burberry Award for Emerging Director. The award celebrates a young director who is set to be a star of tomorrow’s London stage.
From Hollywood A-listers to Britain’s most celebrated playwrights, the longlist for the 2012 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Burberry, puts an array of big names – and rising stars – in the running for a statuette. All are recognised for contributing to a stellar year in the capital’s theatres.
This year’s winners will be revealed at an evening dinner and Awards ceremony, presented by One Man, Two Guvnors star James Corden at the Savoy Hotel on Sunday 25th November 2012.
The event is co-hosted by London Evening Standard Owner Evgeny Lebedev, Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey and American Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.
The longlist reflects a heavy-weight year for women, with the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress category featuring some of the biggest female roles for the stage. Three Ibsen plays provided meaty roles for: Sheridan Smith, thrilling as the capricious Hedda in Hedda Gabler; Hattie Morahan, moving as the trapped housewife Nora in A Doll’s House; and Joely Richardson, luminous as Ellida in Lady from the Sea. In this role, Richardson follows her mother Vanessa Redgrave’s 1979 portrayal and the 2009 performance of her late sister, Natasha, in whose memory this award is given.
Cate Blanchett’s sellout performance as Lotte in the translation of German play Big and Small is also recognised, along with Imelda Staunton’s Mrs Lovett in the hit West End production of Sweeney Todd.
It is a good year for women behind the scenes too, with two new artistic directors hitting the mark with their inaugural productions. New Donmar chief Josie Rourke is up for Best Director for her exciting staging of The Recruiting Officer. At the Tricycle, Indhu Rubasingham’s opening production, new play Red Velvet, wins a longlist place for its first-time author, Lolita Chakrabarti, in The Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright category. Red Velvet also offers Adrian Lesterthe chance to pick up the award for Best Actor, as real-life 19th century black actor Ira Aldridge, who was hounded off the London stage.
Also featuring on the longlist is Es Devlin, the Olympic Closing Ceremony set designer whose work for Master and the Margarita puts her in the Best Design category.
Battling it out with Lester and others for Best Actor are Eddie Redmayne, Simon Paisley Day and Michael Sheen – all for their leading roles in Shakespeare productions, with Redmayne playing Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse, Paisley Day playing Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew and Sheen in the Young Vic’s production of Hamlet.
The most longlisted play this year is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel about a boy with Asperger’s. The National Theatre production, in the Cottesloe space, is mentioned in four categories: Best Director, Best Play, Best Actor and Best Design.
Two musical productions that originated at the Chichester Theatre and transferred to the West End are rivals for the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical: Sweeney Todd and Singin’ in the Rain. The consistently strong fringe venue Southwark Playhouse also fields two shows in this category: Floyd Collins (directed by Derek Bond) and Mack & Mabel (directed by Thom Southerland). Swallows and Amazons, which features the music and lyrics from Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, is also in the running.
The National Theatre leads the longlist, with 22 entries across its three stages. Next, the Royal Court, home of new writing, has 13.
This year’s awards has eight categories: with Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Design, Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical, Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer and Charles Wintour Award for Most PromisingPlaywright – an award named in memory of the former Editor of the Evening Standard and Anna Wintour’s father.
In addition to eight longlisted awards, which are decided by a panel of theatre critics and London Evening Standard’s editor, Sarah Sands, five other special awards will be presented on the night. These are the Burberry Award for Emerging Director (new for this year), the Lebedev Special Award, the Editor’s Award, Beyond Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre’s Golden Seagull.
The shortlist will be announced in the London Evening Standard on 12 November.
The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2012 in association with Burberry.
BEST PLAY
Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, (Royal Court Upstairs)
Constellations by Nick Payne (Royal Court Upstairs)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens (National’s Cottesloe)
Jumpy by April De Angelis (Royal Court Downstairs)
The Last of the Duchess by Nicholas Wright (Hampstead)
Love and Information by Caryl Churchill (Royal Court Downstairs)
Love Love Love by Mike Bartlett (Royal Court Downstairs)
Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute (Almeida)
South Downs by David Hare (Chichester Minerva)
This House by James Graham (National’s Cottesloe)
The Witness by Vivienne Franzmann (Royal Court Upstairs)
BEST DIRECTOR
Benedict Andrews for Three Sisters (Young Vic)
Lucy Bailey for Uncle Vanya (The Print Room)
Tom Cairns for Scenes from an Execution (National’s Lyttelton)
Carrie Cracknell for A Doll’s House (Young Vic)
Marianne Elliott for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National’s Cottesloe)
Polly Findlay for Antigone (National’s Lyttelton)
Sean Foley for The Ladykillers (Gielgud)
Jeremy Herrin for This House (National’s Cottesloe)
Nicholas Hytner for Timon of Athens (National’s Olivier)
Jonathan Kent for Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)
James Macdonald for Love and Information (Royal Court Downstairs)
Roger Michell for Farewell to the Theatre (Hampstead)
Lindsay Posner for Noises Off (Old Vic)
Ian Rickson for Hamlet (Young Vic)
Josie Rourke for The Recruiting Officer (DonmarWarehouse)
Lyndsey Turner for Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Donmar Warehouse)
BEST ACTOR
Simon Russell Beale, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)
Charles Edwards, The King’s Speech (Wyndham’s) and This House (National’s Cottesloe)
Rupert Everett, The Judas Kiss (Hampstead)
Laurence Fox, Our Boys (Duchess)
David Haig, The Madness of George III (Theatre Royal Bath and Apollo)
Douglas Hodge, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse)
Alex Jennings, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)
Rory Kinnear, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)
Adrian Lester, Red Velvet (Tricycle Theatre)
Simon Paisley Day, The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Eddie Redmayne, Richard II (Donmar Warehouse)
Adrian Scarborough, Hedda Gabler (Old Vic)
Michael Sheen, Hamlet (Young Vic)
Scott Shepherd, Gatz (Elevator Repair Service at Noel Coward)
David Suchet, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Apollo)
Luke Treadaway, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, (National Theatre’s Cottesloe)
NATASHA RICHARDSON AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS
Eileen Atkins, All That Fall (Jermyn Street)
Pippa Bennett Warner, The Witness (Royal Court Upstairs)
Eve Best, The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic)
Cate Blanchett, Big and Small (Sydney Theatre Company for Barbican)
Anna Chancellor, The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead)
Anne-Marie Duff, Berenice (Donmar Warehouse)
Mariah Gale, Three Sisters (Young Vic)
Tamsin Greig, Jumpy (Royal Court Downstairs andDuke of York’s)
Sally Hawkins, Constellations (Royal Court Upstairs)
Martina Laird, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (National’sCottesloe)
Helen McCrory, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)
Laurie Metcalf, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Apollo)
Hattie Morahan, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)
Joely Richardson, The Lady from the Sea (Kingston’s Rose Theatre)
Sheridan Smith, Hedda Gabler (Old Vic)
Imelda Staunton, Sweeney Todd (Chichester and Adelphi)
NED SHERRIN AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL
Floyd Collins (Southwark Playhouse)
Directed by Derek Bond
Mack & Mabel (Southwark Playhouse)
Directed by Thom Southerland
Singin’ In the Rain (Chichester Festival and Palace Theatre)
Directed by Jonathan Church
Swallows and Amazons (presented by the National Theatre in association with The Children’s Touring Partnership at the Vaudeville Theatre)
Music and lyrics by Neil Hannon
Script by Helen Edmundson
Directed by Tom Morris
Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)
Directed by Jonathan Kent
Top Hat (Aldwych)
Directed by Matthew White
Adaptation for Stage: Howard Jacques and Matthew White
BEST DESIGN
Hildegard Bechtler, Top Hat ( Aldwych)
Miriam Buether, Wild Swans (A Young Vic/American Repertory Theatre/Actors Touring Company co-production)
Bunny Christie, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National’s Cottesloe)
Kevin Depinet, Detroit (National’s Cottesloe)
Es Devlin, The Master and Margarita (Complicite at Barbican)
Soutra Gilmour, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse ) and Antigone (National’s Olivier)
Richard Kent, Richard II (Donmar Warehouse)
Ian MacNeil, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)
Peter McKintosh, Noises Off (Old Vic)
Vicki Mortimer, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)
Lucy Osborne, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse)
Michael Taylor, The Ladykillers (Gielgud)
Jamie Vartan, Misterman (National’s Lyttelton)
CHARLES WINTOUR AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT
Stephen Beresford, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)
Lolita Chakrabarti, Red Velvet (Tricycle)
Ishy Din, Snookered (Bush)
Vickie Donoghue, Mudlarks (Bush)
Nancy Harris, Our New Girl (Bush)
John Hodge, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)
Luke Norris, Goodbye to All That (Royal Court Upstairs)
Nicholas Pierpan, You Can Still Make a Killing (Southwark Playhouse)
Tim Price, Salt, Root and Roe (Trafalgar Studios)
Hayley Squires, Vera Vera Vera (Royal Court Upstairs andTheatre Local Peckham)
Tom Wells, The Kitchen Sink (Bush)
THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER
Jonathan Bailey, South Downs (Chichester Minerva and Harold Pinter)
Denise Gough, Our New Girl (Bush) and Desire Under the Elms (Lyric Hammersmith)
David Fynn, She Stoops to Conquer (National’s Olivier)
Cush Jumbo, She Stoops to Conquer (National’s Olivier)
Abby Rakic-Platt, Vera Vera Vera (Royal Court Upstairs and Theatre Local Peckham)
Matthew Tennyson, Making Noise Quietly (Donmar Warehouse)
Joshua Williams, Shivered (Southwark Playhouse)and Love and Information (Royal Court Upstairs)
Emi Wokoma, Soul Sister (Hackney Empire and Savoy)
