Everyone’s a winner: The Evening Standard Theatre Awards in pictures

"Well, I had a ball!’ wrote Best Actor Simon Russell Beale to the Evening Standard after our particularly glamorous 58th Theatre Awards. It was a cocktail of heady fashion, New York planning know-how and London high spirits, co-hosted by Evgeny Lebedev, the paper’s owner, Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry, and Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, whose late father started the awards during his time as editor of the Evening Standard.

We knew it was going to be special this year. There is an alchemy about the London theatre scene that is the envy of the world. Furthermore, this has been the year of the Olympics. The newspaper critics who were my fellow judges argued over many of the awards but there was one — Beyond Theatre — that needed no discussion. Who else but Danny Boyle and his Opening Ceremony team (above) could claim spectacle of the year? The audience at The Savoy started cheering wildly before Boyle had even reached the stage. The presenter of the award, Victoria Pendleton, was crying helplessly. The other high points were the warmth of the master of ceremonies James Corden towards his old theatrical pals; the charm of the cast from Choir Boy, singing a cappella; seeing theatre royalty leap to their feet for the triumphant David Hare and Nick Hytner, and cheer most fervently of all for Dame Judi Dench. A Shakespearean actor murmured, ‘Yup, it’s another stander.’ As the night ended and some spilled out into taxis, others roamed the hotel looking for Stephen Fry’s suite. We all agreed, we’d had a ball.