Rob Brydon back to host Evening Standard Theatre Awards honouring best of this year’s stage talent

Host: Rob Brydon will return for this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards
Dave Benett
Robert Dex @RobDexES29 October 2015
The Weekender

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Rob Brydon is heading back to the Old Vic to present this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards a month after starring on its stage in the first production under its new artistic director.

The actor, who played a put-upon but inspiring teacher in Future Conditional at the Waterloo venue where Matthew Warchus recently took over from Kevin Spacey, will steer this year’s awards single-handedly after sharing the job last year with Steve Coogan.

He joked: “Last year I presented it with some Mancunian comedian called Coogan but I don’t know what happened to him.

“Maybe next year there won’t be a presenter, I’m sure some people think that would be an improvement. But I had no hesitation in saying yes, it was such a good night and the calibre of people that are recognised is so high.”

Talent: Tom Hiddleston, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Dominic West and Bee Shaffer
Dave Benett

The awards, co-hosted by Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen with the Evening Standard’s owner Evgeny Lebedev, will recognise the best of this year’s productions and performances with awards for directing and design as well as best actor and actress.

The event at the Old Vic on November 22 is being held in partnership with stalwart West End restaurant The Ivy, and has been held every year since 1955 to recognise the work of theatrical greats including Lord Olivier, Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave and Dames Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren.

That history is reflected in the awards including the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright and the Milton Shulman Award for best director, which are named in honour of the newspaper’s former editor and late theatre critic respectively.

More recent winners include Sam Mendes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston. Other winners over the years include Simon Russell Beale, regarded as one of our finest Shakespearean actors, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, director Sir Richard Eyre and actor Rory Kinnear.

Brydon himself will be back in the West End next year appearing alongside Sir Kenneth Branagh in The Painkiller — part of the first season of shows put on by Sir Kenneth’s own company.

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Brydon said: “It’s a proper farce, people falling over, people falling out of rooms. We did it in Belfast when they re-opened the Lyric there and we always wanted to bring it to the West End and it finally worked out.

“The chance to do a French farce with a man like Kenneth Branagh isn’t to be turned down.”

The shortlisted contenders for the event, which also includes the Burberry Emerging Talent Award, the Editor’s Award in recognition of an outstanding contribution to theatre and the Lebedev Award which can recognise a specific piece of work or a lifetime achievement, will be announced next month.

The Beyond Theatre Award recognises the explosion in work that strays far from the traditional stage setting. Last year it was won by the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaboration Here Lies Love at the National Theatre.

The awards are open to shows on the London stage between October 22 last year and October 16, 2015. The judging panel includes the Evening Standard’s chief theatre critic Henry Hitchings, broadcaster Mark Lawson and the newspaper’s editor Sarah Sands.

The night regularly attracts some of the biggest names in theatre, fashion and the arts. Among the guests to have walked the red carpet are Eddie Redmayne, Carey Mulligan, Damian Lewis, Tom Hiddleston and James Corden.

Other famous faces who have paid homage to theatre greats at the event include Victoria Pendleton, Naomi Campbell, David and Victoria Beckham and Anna Kendrick.

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