The Harold and Judi show!
Harold Pinter and Dame Judi Dench were honoured today in the 50th Evening Standard Theatre Awards which were presented at a star-studded ceremony at the National Theatre, and the National itself even collected a prize.
The playwright, the actress and the South Bank institution were each given Special Awards, honouring their unique contributions to the nation's cultural life and marking the Standard awards' own remarkable half-century.
The cream of Britain's acting, writing and directing talent - plus some select foreign imports such as Hollywood actor Christian Slater and Producers star Nathan Lane - gathered for the ceremony, compered by Rory Bremner.
The first award, for Best Play, went to Alan Bennett's schoolroom drama The History Boys at the National Theatre, and that show's star, Richard Griffiths, was also named Best Actor.
Victoria Hamilton beat off strong competition from Pam Ferris and Kelly Reilly to win the Best Actress statuette for her performance as the disturbed young heroine of Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer, in a production presented by Sheffield Theatres at the Albery.
The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director went to Rufus Norris, for his Almeida adaptation of the Dogme film Festen, about a family celebration destroyed by the revelation of a dark secret. Festen also won the Best Design award, but in a unique decision, the judging panel awarded the statuette jointly to this atmospheric show's set, lighting and sound designers.
Despite strong competition from the National's production of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, and another Sondheim show, Sweeney Todd, seen at the New Ambassadors, the ITV Best Musical Award went, inevitably, to Mel Brooks's all-conquering, sharp-witted Broadway import, The Producers.
The Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer, renamed this year in honour of the Evening Standard's late theatre critic, was awarded to Eddie Redmayne for his performance as the troubled gay son in Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? His father, played by Jonathan Pryce, has sex with a goat.
Writers of the past four years were eligible for The Charles Wintour Bursary for New Playwriting, which bears the name of the the visionary Evening Standard editor who founded the awards in 1955.
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The £30,000 cheque that comes with this award went to Owen McCafferty for his play Scenes from the Big Picture, seen last year at the National Theatre. It was a great day for the National, reflected by the presence at the awards of four of the institution's artistic directors, and for the Almeida, but the Special Awards to Harold Pinter and Judi Dench were the most enthusiastically received.
Those presenting awards included Dame Diana Rigg, Christian Slater, Sir Peter
Hall, Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall, soon to make her London stage debut, and Claire Bloom and Samuel West.
The audience included actors Zoe Wanamaker, Charles Dance, Olivia Williams, Felicity Kendal, Michael Crawford, Emilia Fox, Alison Steadman and Jason Donovan, writers Michael Frayn and Christopher Hampton, and directors Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner.
Guests were greeted on their arrival by Lord Rothermere, chairman of Associated Newspapers, owner of the Evening Standard.
A report on how the judges made their decisions for the 50th anniversary awards will be published in tomorrow's Standard.
Highlights of the ceremony will be broadcast on ITV London at 11.30pm on Wednesday.
