Today we publish the shortlist for the 67th Evening Standard Theatre Awards, recognising the astonishing breadth of stories and talent across London’s stages.
This year’s nominations showcase that extraordinary range from superstar Nicole Scherzinger in classic musical Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy to Tatenda Shamiso’s contemporary story of female-to-male gender transition, NO I.D., which began life at Theatre Peckham and the Vault Festival.
James Graham’s Dear England and Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, two bold, popular and critical hits transferring from the National to the West End, will vie for the Best Play award with Sam Holcroft's play-within-a-play A Mirror and Ryan Calais Cameron's Retrograde about a crucial moment in the life of actor Sidney Poitier.
Patsy Ferran is nominated for Best Actress for her extraordinary performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida, a part she took on and made her own with a week’s notice.
She faces competition from her co-star Anjana Vasan, previous winner Sophie Okonedo, and Rachael Sterling. In a year of blockbuster musicals the exuberant Guys & Dolls is up against Broadway’s experimental A Strange Loop and Standing at the Sky’s Edge, set on a Sheffield housing estate, and the reworked Gershwin extravaganza Crazy for You.
Founded in 1955, three years after The Mousetrap opened, the Awards are the oldest dramatic accolades in the UK, a means for London’s paper to salute London’s theatrical creativity. Theycelebrate a form that is constantly finding new voices, breaking new ground and telling new stories but which also preserves a skein of tradition.
The Motive and the Cue details the clash of egos and acting styles when John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in Hamlet in New York. Burton won Best Actor at the very first Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 1955, for his Henry V. Gielgud won it jointly with Ralph Richardson 15 years later, in David Storey’s Home, and again in 1975 for Pinter’s No Man’s Land.
The awards will be presented this year by the brilliant actor, writer and director Susan Wokoma and hosted by the Standard’s proprietor Lord Lebedev. His co-hosts are Sir Ian McKellen, Vanessa Kirby, David Harewood and Sienna Miller, actors who have dazzled audiences on stage and beyond across seven decades.
The ceremony at Claridge’s on November 19th will celebrate not only star actors, writers and directors, but also the technicians and backstage workers who make the show happen everynight.
This year’s shortlist proves London theatre is in robust and effervescently creative health despite the damage wrought by Covid, Brexit and the cost of living crisis. The Evening Standard Theatre Awards are here to champion it.
