It began with the host Jason Manford joking about the danger of awards ceremony slaps but the Oscars of the theatre industry held few shocks or hard edges. Instead there was plenty of warm feeling about the resilience and can-do spirit shown through the pandemic lockdowns. A surge of pent-up energy was palpable in the room after a three-year hiatus since the last in-person ceremony but the awards themselves felt safe in their focus on big splashy revivals and well-loved adapted stories.
Rebecca Frecknall’s darkly reworked juggernaut, Cabaret, deserved its seven wins, as did Lola Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi for its sensational puppetry (it claimed five awards). But the habit of finding one or two big winners felt oddly tunnel-visioned this year when it might have been the perfect opportunity to spread the love and recognition more widely.
Cabaret’s two big celebrity turns by Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley were charismatic but predictable winners and it is a shame that strong contenders in less perfectly formed shows went unrecognised, such as Arinzé Kene’s kinetic performance in Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (the show took home a gong for best original score or new orchestration instead).
The winning “new” shows felt like revivals in concept too: Life of Pi has had a lucrative former life as a bestselling book and a Hollywood film. Back to the Future, which won for best new musical, is based on Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 box-office smash movie. Both could be called comfort theatre for their warm, fuzzy familiarity and striking aesthetics. Back to the Future, particularly, seems to be part of an emerging crop of adaptations from films which seem designed to drag in a generation of nostalgic 40- and 50-somethings (Moulin Rouge, which won best costume design, is among them).
It was gratifying to see edgier play revivals rewarded, from the National Theatre’s The Normal Heart, for which Liz Carr won best supporting actress, to Nick Payne’s Constellations, which was daringly re-worked by Michael Longhurst to feature four pairs of casts this time around (including best actress winner Sheila Atim). A highlight came in the best entertainment or comedy win for Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of). Hit by Covid regulations and then cut short, this was a plucky David of a production against the Goliath of West End attractions and it did not gather the audiences it deserved. Writer and co-director, Isobel McArthur, collected the award and reminded us that this witty, karaoke-infused show began at Glasgow’s Tron. Producer David Pugh took a risk in bringing a former fringe show to a major West End venue and it proved to be one of the most original comedies of the year.
There was no equivalent to the Oscar slap but a metaphorical sucker punch came in the “best supporting actor” category. The prize was collected by the seven actors (not all male) behind the Royal Bengal tiger, a majestic puppet full of character and drama, in Life of Pi. The puppeteers called it a landmark moment which “opens the door for more puppets in central roles of theatre”, but by this rationale, should the puppeteers behind War Horse’s Joey have won an acting gong too – and what about the talking car in Back to the Future? Shouldn’t a prerequisite for “best actor” be one human heartbeat rather than seven? The victory is, at best, an argument for creating a new category for puppeteers given the very welcome rise of high-quality puppetry in the West End.
This article was amended on 12 April. The original stated that Get Up Stand Up! won an award for best sound design. It won for best original score or new orchestrations. Cabaret won best sound design.
