Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards 2006

Nominees Lunch Friday 1st December 2006 - Cafe De Paris

Winners highlighted below in red

As Whatsonstage.com, the UK’s leading theatre website celebrates its tenth birthday,
nominations are announced for its annual Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards

The Voting Begins…

Big Battle of the Musicals: The Sound of Music, Evita,
Wicked, Spamalot, Avenue Q, Cabaret & more

Plus Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Crucible, Frost/Nixon & Misbegotten

Connie Fisher nominated for two awards, The Sound of Music for eight
Tom Stoppard’s Rock is on a roll with five nominations
Kevin Spacey up for Best Actor second consecutive year
Idina Menzel, Rufus Sewell, Kathleen Turner, Patrick Swayze, Patrick Stewart, Nigel Harman, Alan Cumming, Rosamund Pike, Michael Gambon & Harold Pinter also in the performers’ running

In an unprecedented year for musicals in Theatreland, the final big opening has come out first in terms of nominations in this year’s seventh annual Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, announced today at a star-studded lunchtime ceremony at Café de Paris in the heart of the West End.

The 20th musical arrival in the West End in 12 months, The Sound of Music opened two weeks ago (15 November) to critical raves at the London Palladium and it has clearly struck a chord with the public too, securing a total of eight nominations in the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, including two (Best Actress in a Musical, London Newcomer of the Year) for its star, the “people’s choice Maria” Connie Fisher, winner of TV’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, which is also in the running for Theatre Event of the Year.

Close on The Sound of Music’s heels are two more big-budget revivals, Evita (with seven nominations) and Cabaret (six); Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic faces more fierce competition from blockbuster Broadway imports Wicked and Spamalot (with four nominations apiece), Caroline, or Change (five) and Avenue Q (two), which are also all vying for the Superbreak Best New Musical award.

Amongst leading ladies, Connie Fisher will fight for Best Actress in a Musical with Idina Menzel (Wicked), Elena Roger (Evita), Hannah Waddingham (Spamalot), Jenna Russell (Sunday in the Park with George) and Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change).

With so many musicals, the West End’s shortage of plays has been generating headlines recently, but there’s no shortage of nominations for those on offer. Following its double victory at the Evening Standard awards earlier this week, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll leads the way in the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards round-up with five nominations, including more best acting nods for Rufus Sewell and Sinead Cusack. And, despite the premature closures of their plays Bent and Summer and Smoke, Alan Cumming and Rosamund Pike also make it onto the Best Actor and Best Actress shortlists.

Rock ‘n’ Roll is matched in nominations by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, while screenwriter Peter Morgan’s stage debut Frost/Nixon and the Old Vic revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten clock in with four nods apiece.

Moon’s Kevin Spacey – who scooped last year’s Best Actor prize for Richard II at the Old Vic – competes this year with Frost/Nixon’s title stars Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, jointly nominated in a category that also fields David Haig and Iain Glen. Spacey’s Misbegotten co-star Eve Best meanwhile is up against Pike and Cusack as well as Felicity Kendal, Judi Dench and Kathleen Turner for Best Actress honours.

Elsewhere, Nigel Harman and Patrick Swayze battle it out in the same category (Best Takeover in a Role) for the same role (Nathan Detroit, currently played by Swayze) in the same production (Guys & Dolls), and two Strallens, sisters Scarlet and Summer, are both celebrating nominations for their turns in musicals Mary Poppins and The Boy Friend respectively. Amongst other nominees announced today are stars including: Tim Curry, Lesley Garrett, Sheila Hancock, James Dreyfus, Harold Pinter, Michael Gambon, Patrick Stewart, Colm Meaney, Clarke Peters, Alice Eve, Darius Danesh and The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith.

The Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards are unique in that they are judged by the general public – every year tens of thousands of theatregoers decide the contenders and eventual winners in all 20+ categories. This year, over 2,000 took part in the preliminary nominations phase alone. After today’s launch, final awards voting opens online on Monday (4 December) at www.whatsonstage.com and continues throughout December and January. Winners will be announced in early February 2007.

Best Actress
Eve Best – A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic
Felicity Kendal – Amy’s View at the Garrick
Judi Dench – Hay Fever at the Theatre Royal Haymarket
Kathleen Turner – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Apollo
Rosamund Pike – Summer and Smoke at the Apollo
Sinead Cusack – Rock ‘n’ Roll at the Royal Court & Duke of York’s

Best Actor
Alan Cumming – Bent at Trafalgar Studios
David Haig – Donkeys’ Years at the Comedy
Iain Glen – The Crucible, RSC at the Gielgud
Kevin Spacey – A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic
Michael Sheen & Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Warehouse & Gielgud
Rufus Sewell – Rock ‘n’ Roll at the Royal Court & Duke of York’s

Best Supporting Actress
Adie Allen – The Lightning Play at the Almeida
Alice Eve – Rock ‘n’ Roll at the Royal Court & Duke of York’s
Helen Schlesinger – The Crucible, RSC at the Gielgud
June Watson – Smaller at the Lyric
Nancy Carroll – The Voysey Inheritance at the NT Lyttelton
Sinead Matthews – The Wild Duck at the Donmar Warehouse

Best Supporting Actor
Andrew Woodall – The Voysey Inheritance at the NT Lyttelton
Colm Meaney – A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic
Con O’Neill – Southwark Fair at the NT Cottesloe
Mark Hadfield – Thérèse Raquin at the NT Lyttelton
Paterson Joseph – The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the NT Olivier
Tony Bell – A Man for All Seasons at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Best Actress in a Musical
Connie Fisher – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Elena Roger – Evita at the Adelphi
Hannah Waddingham – Spamalot at the Palace
Idina Menzel – Wicked at the Apollo Victoria
Jenna Russell – Sunday in the Park with George at Wyndham’s
Tonya Pinkins – Caroline, or Change at the NT Lyttelton

Best Actor in a Musical
Alexander Hanson – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Clarke Peters – The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess at the Savoy
Daniel Evans – Sunday in the Park with George at Wyndham’s
James Dreyfus – Cabaret at the Lyric
Philip Quast – Evita at the Adelphi
Tim Curry – Spamalot at the Palace

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Anna Francolini – Caroline, or Change at the NT Lyttelton
Lesley Garrett – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Miriam Margolyes – Wicked at the Apollo Victoria
Nadia Coote – Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych
Sheila Hancock – Cabaret at the Lyric
Summer Strallen – The Boy Friend at the Open Air

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
Clive Rowe – Caroline, or Change at the NT Lyttelton
Harvey – Daddy Cool at the Shaftesbury
Ian Gelder – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Jay Webb – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the Theatre Royal Haymarket
Matt Rawle – Evita at the Adelphi
Tom Goodman-Hill – Spamalot at the Palace

Best Solo Performance
Greg Hicks – Missing Persons at Trafalgar Studios
Harold Pinter – Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Upstairs
Michael Gambon – Eh Joe at the Duke of York’s
Patrick Stewart – A Christmas Carol at the Albery
Robert Lepage – The Andersen Project at the Barbican
Will Adamsdale – Notes from Underground at Trafalgar Studios
 
Best Ensemble Performance
Avenue Q – at the Noel Coward
Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship – at the NT Cottesloe
Market Boy – at the NT Olivier
The 39 Steps – at the Tricycle & Criterion
The Canterbury Tales – RSC at the Gielgud
The Seafarer – at the NT Cottesloe

Best Takeover in a Role
Darius Danesh – Chicago at the Adelphi
Nigel Harman – Guys & Dolls at the Piccadilly
Patrick Swayze – Guys & Dolls at the Piccadilly
Reece Shearsmith – The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Sally Dexter – Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace
Scarlet Strallen – Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward

The NICK HERN BOOKS Best New Play
Blackbird by David Harrower – at the Albery
Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan – at the Donmar Warehouse & Gielgud
In Extremis by Howard Brenton – at Shakespeare’s Globe
Rock ‘n’ Roll by Tom Stoppard – at the Royal Court & Duke of York’s
The Overwhelming by JT Rogers – at the NT Cottesloe
The Seafarer by Conor McPherson – at the NT Cottesloe

Best New Comedy
Piano/Forte by Terry Johnson – at the Royal Court
Smaller by Carmel Morgan – at the Lyric
Southwark Fair by Samuel Adamson – at the NT Cottesloe
The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow – at the Tricycle & Criterion
The Lightning Play by Charlotte Jones – at the Almeida
Whipping It Up by Steve Thompson – at the Bush

The SUPERBREAK Best New Musical
Avenue Q by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez– at the Noël Coward
Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori – at the NT Lyttelton
Daddy Cool by Stephen Plaice and Amani Naphtali – at the Shaftesbury
Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Bergstein – at the Aldwych
Spamalot by Eric Idle and John Du Prez – at the Palace
Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman – at the Apollo Victoria

Best Play Revival
A Moon for the Misbegotten – at the Old Vic
A Voyage Round My Father – at the Donmar Warehouse & Wyndham’s
Donkeys’ Years – at the Comedy
See How They Run – at the Duchess
The Crucible – RSC at the Gielgud
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – at the Apollo

Best Musical Revival
Cabaret – at the Lyric
Evita – at the Adelphi
The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess – at the Savoy
Sunday in the Park with George – at Wyndham’s
The Boy Friend – at the Open Air
The Sound of Music – at the London Palladium

The SHAKESPEARE 4 KIDZ Best Shakespearean Production
As You Like It – RSC at the Novello
Hamlet – English Touring Theatre at the New Ambassadors
King Lear – Maly Drama of St Petersburg at the Barbican
The Comedy of Errors – at the Globe
The Taming of the Shrew – at the Open Air
Titus Andronicus – at the Globe

Best Director
Declan Donnellan – The Changeling, Cheek by Jowl at the Barbican
Dominic Cooke – The Crucible, RSC at the Gielgud
Jeremy Sams – Donkeys’ Years at the Comedy, Little Britain Live at the Apollo Hammersmith & The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Michael Grandage – The Wild Duck at the Donmar Warehouse, Evita at the Adelphi & Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Warehouse & Gielgud
Rufus Norris – Tintin at the Barbican, Market Boy at the NT Olivier & Cabaret at the Lyric
Trevor Nunn – Porgy & Bess at the Savoy & Rock ‘n’ Roll at the Royal Court & Duke of York’s

Best Set Designer
Christopher Oram – Evita at the Adelphi & Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Warehouse & Gielgud
David Farley & Timothy Bird – Sunday in the Park with George at Wyndham’s
Eugene Lee – Wicked at the Apollo Victoria
Hildegard Bechtler – Thérèse Raquin at the NT Lyttelton & The Crucible, RSC at the Gielgud
Katrina Lindsay – Market Boy at the NT Olivier & Cabaret at the Lyric
Robert Jones – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium

Best Choreographer
Javier de Frutos – Cabaret at the Lyric
Karen Bruce – Footloose at the Novello
Kate Champion – Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych
Rob Ashford – Evita at the Adelphi
Sean Cheeseman & Lizzi Gee – Daddy Cool at the Shaftesbury
Twyla Tharp – Movin’ Out at the Apollo Victoria

The STUART PHILLIPS London Newcomer of the Year
Andrew Garfield – The Overwhelming & Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship at the NT Cottesloe & Beautiful Thing at the Sound
Chris New – Bent at Trafalgar Studios
Connie Fisher – The Sound of Music at the London Palladium
Derek Hough – Footloose at the Novello
Nina Raine (playwright) – Rabbit at the Old Red Lion & Trafalgar Studios
Pippa Bennett-Warner – Caroline, or Change at the NT Lyttelton

Best Off-West End Production
Amadeus – at Wilton’s Music Hall
Beautiful Thing – at the Sound
Gladiator Games – at Theatre Royal Stratford East
Little Shop of Horrors – at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Metamorphosis – at the Lyric Hammersmith
The Exonerated – at Riverside Studios

Best Regional or Touring Production
A Number – at Sheffield Crucible
Black Watch – National Theatre of Scotland
Follies – at Northampton Theatre Royal
Me & My Girl – on tour
Nicholas Nickleby – at Chichester Festival Theatre
Unprotected – at Liverpool Everyman

The NOW Theatre Event of the Year
BBC One’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, resulting in the West End’s first leading role to be cast by nationwide TV vote
The reopening of the Young Vic “on time and on budget”
The Royal Court’s 50th anniversary season including its tribute night to John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s year-long Complete Works Festival
The Sultan’s Elephant transforming the streets of London
The year of the musical – 20 arrivals in 12 months

Special mentions:
The History Boys conquering Broadway and the big screen
The “flash mob” in Trafalgar Square as part of the National Youth Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations
The reopening of the Roundhouse with Fuerzabruta

Stars turn out for tenth birthday

Today’s awards launch also marks the tenth birthday for Whatsonstage.com as the UK’s leading theatre website. To celebrate, in addition to the nominations announcements, a special birthday concert featured performances from Hannah Waddingham (Spamalot), So Solid Crew’s Harvey and Melanie La Barrie (Daddy Cool), Lorna Want (Evita), Sheridan Smith and Paul Keating (Little Shop of Horrors) and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? semi-finalist Abi Finley.

Richard Schiff (from TV’s The West Wing) and Coronation Street’s Richard Fleeshman, both of whom make their West End debuts in the New Year, were guest presenters. Amongst the nominees and other attendees at today’s event were: Lesley Garrett, Michael Sheen, Adam Garcia, Connie Fisher, Alexander Hanson, Rosamund Pike, Sheila Hancock, Alan Cumming, Patrick Stewart, Reece Shearsmith, Olivia Williams, Chris New, Daniel Evans, Christopher Sieber, Nigel Planer, Billy Zane, Kelly Brook, Janet McTeer, David Haig, Janie Dee, Chris Carmack, James Dreyfus, Harvey, Martine McCutcheon, Michelle Collins, Matthew Marsh, Clive Rowe, Chris Grierson, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jenna Russell, David Lan, Jeremy Sams, Conleth Hill, Jim Norton, Andrew Garfield, Ray Panthaki, Sally Ann Triplett, Dominic Cooke, Howard Brenton, Nina Raine, David Farley, Michelle Gayle, Abi Titmuss, Patsy Palmer, Caprice and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? finalists Simona Armstrong, Aoife Mulholland, Leanne Dobinson, Meliz Serman and Laura Sicurello.

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