London Evening Standard Theatre Awards longlist revealed

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10 April 2012

What an extraordinary year for London theatre, at home and abroad. The Brits stormed Broadway and the London stage continues to dazzle with its vitality, originality, intellect and glamour. Here we reveal the longlisted contenders for the 57th Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Vogue.

BEST ACTOR
From Shakespeare to Mary Shelley, an updated Goldoni romp to a Simon Gray revival, there was no shortage of meaty roles to lure our leading men to the stage, and they responded with a vengeance.

Bertie Carvel
Matilda The Musical (RSC Stratford & Cambridge Theatre)
Richard Clothier
Richard III (Propeller at Hampstead)
James Corden
One Man, Two Guvnors (National's Lyttelton)
Benedict Cumberbatch
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Charles Edwards
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe)
Ralph Fiennes
The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Harry Hadden-Paton
Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Derek Jacobi
King Lear (Donmar)
Jude Law
Anna Christie (Donmar)
Jonny Lee Miller
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Kevin Spacey
Richard III (Old Vic)
Dominic West
Butley (Duchess)

BEST ACTRESS
Once again, actresses have turned away from the easy appeal of TV and film work to take on challenging, thrilling roles on stage. Among 2011's standouts are an impressive number of established comic actresses essaying dramatic roles - and vice versa.

Kristin Scott Thomas
Betrayal (Comedy)
Gemma Arterton
The Master Builder (Almeida)
Tracie Bennett
End of the Rainbow (Trafalgar Studios)
Eve Best
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe)
Lisa Dillon
The Knot of the Heart (Almeida)
Haydn Gwynne
Richard III (Old Vic)
Lesley Manville
Grief (National's Cottesloe)
Sinead Matthews
Ecstasy (Hampstead)
Ruth Negga
The Playboy of the Western World (Old Vic)
Sheridan Smith
Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Samantha Spiro
Chicken Soup with Barley (Royal Court)
Imelda Staunton
A Delicate Balance (Almeida)
Michelle Terry
Tribes (Royal Court)
Tracey Ullman
My City (Almeida)
Ruth Wilson
Anna Christie (Donmar)

BEST DIRECTOR
As ever, this category sees a roster of previous contenders and winners in competition, augmented with the return to theatre of two prodigal sons, Danny Boyle and Sam Mendes.

Rob Ashford
Anna Christie (Donmar)
Lucy Bailey
The Beggar's Opera (Open Air Theatre) & Kingdom of Earth (Print Room) & Fabrication (Print Room)
Danny Boyle
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Dominic Cooke
Chicken Soup with Barley (Royal Court)
Declan Donnellan
Tempest (Cheek By Jowl at Barbican)
Simon Godwin
The Acid Test (Royal Court)
Michael Grandage
Luise Miller (Donmar)
Edward Hall
Richard III & The Comedy of Errors (Propeller at Hampstead)
Sean Holmes
Saved (Lyric Hammersmith)
Mike Leigh
Grief (National's Cottesloe)
Sam Mendes
Richard III (Old Vic)
Roger Michell
Tribes (Royal Court)
Rufus Norris
London Road (National's Cottesloe)
Trevor Nunn
Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Bijan Sheibani
The Kitchen (National's Olivier)
Max Stafford-Clark
Top Girls (Chichester's Minerva & Trafalgar Studios)
Jessica Swale
The Belle's Stratagem (Southwark Playhouse)
Matthew Warchus
Matilda The Musical (RSC Stratford & Cambridge Theatre)
Nicholas Hytner
One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre)

THE CHARLES WINTOUR AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT
This award can make a writer, and comes with the added incentive of a £3,000 cash prize. No one previously shortlisted is eligible but familiar names from recent longlists, Penelope Skinner and Ella Hickson, again impressed the longlist judges, alongside new names.

Tom Basden
Joseph K (Gate)
Jesse Briton
Bound (Southwark Playhouse)
EV Crowe
Kin (Royal Court)
Vivienne Franzmann
Mogadishu (Lyric Hammersmith)
Ella Hickson
Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios)
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
Belongings (Hampstead & Trafalgar Studios)
Penelope Skinner
The Village Bike (Royal Court)

BEST DESIGN
Designers take a blank space and create the world of the play for us. This year's longlisted talents worked wonders, magicking Frankenstein's lab, a vast restaurant kitchen and a crashed plane out of the ether. This year, the judges considered sound as well as production design.

Paul Barritt
The Animals and Children Took to the Streets (BAC)
Jon Bausor
Lord of the Flies (Open Air Theatre)
Giles Cadle
The Kitchen (National's Olivier)
Bunny Christie
Men Should Weep (National's Lyttelton)
Lizzie Clachan
Wastwater (Royal Court)
Adam Cork
Sound designer of Anna Christie & King Lear (Donmar)
William Dudley
Snake in the Grass (Print Room)
Mark Tildesley
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)

THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER
While new writers are recognised with their own category, this award is open to actors, directors, designers or even companies who have produced bold and innovative work or performance in the 12 months since our last awards. No previously longlisted individual is eligible for consideration.

1927 (company)
for their production of The Animals and Children Took to the Streets (BAC)
Robyn Addison
for her performances in The Rivals (Theatre Royal Bath/ Theatre Royal Haymarket) & Mongrel Island (Soho)
Tom Byam Shaw
for his performances in Les Parents Terribles (Donmar at Trafalgar Studios) and The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Joseph Drake
for his performance in Kingdom of Earth (Print Room)
Johnny Flynn
for his performance in The Heretic (Royal Court)
Phoebe Fox
for her performances in As You Like It (Rose Kingston) and The Acid Test (Royal Court) & There Is A War (National's Paintframe)
Malachi Kirby
for his performance in Mogadishu (Lyric, Hammersmith)
Vanessa Kirby
for her performance in The Acid Test (Royal Court)
David Mercatali
for his direction of Tender Napalm (Southwark Playhouse)
Chris Rolls
for his direction of Les Parents Terribles (Donmar at Trafalgar Studios)
Kyle Soller
for his performances in The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic) & Government Inspector (Young Vic) & The Faith Machine (Royal Court)
Thom Southerland
for his direction of Parade (Southwark Playhouse)
David Wilson Barnes
for his performance in Becky Shaw (Almeida)

BEST PLAY
Among the new plays to have made their mark are titles that take on issues as diverse as bad science, drug addiction, emotional dependency and deafness. While venues noted for new writing - the Royal Court and Almeida and the smaller Gate - dominate, the National weighs in with a delightfully silly, slapstick comedy.

The Heretic
(Royal Court) Richard Bean
One Man, Two Guvnors
(National's Lyttelton) Richard Bean
Wittenberg
(Gate) David Davalos
The Knot of the Heart
(Almeida) David Eldridge
Becky Shaw
(Almeida) Gina Gionfriddo
Tribes
(Royal Court) Nina Raine
Remembrance Day
(Royal Court) Aleksey Scherbak

THE NED SHERRIN AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL
A variety of riches colour the category. The scale of the shows singled out range from small to large, the subject matter from murder to the oeuvre of Afrobeat's biggest star, and national companies and fringe venues compete with West End producers.

Betty Blue Eyes
Novello
Crazy for You
Open Air Theatre
Fela!
National's Olivier
London Road
National's Cottesloe
Matilda the musical
RSC Stratford & Cambridge Theatre
Parade
Southwark Playhouse
Woody Sez
Arts

THE JUDGES

The Award winners are decided by Sarah Sands, deputy editor, and a panel of theatre critics: Henry Hitchings of the Standard, the Mail on Sunday's Georgina Brown, Susannah Clapp of the Observer, the Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer, Libby Purves of the Times and the International Herald Tribune's Matt Wolf. Evgeny Lebedev, chairman of the Evening Standard, chairs the jury. The shortlist will be published in the week beginning November 7 and the winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Savoy on November 20.
Four additional awards will also be announced on the night: the Golden Seagull Award, presented on behalf of Moscow Art Theatre, in recognition of contribution to the international stage; the Lebedev Special Award, to honour career achievement; the Editor's Award and the Beyond Theatre Award.

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