50 Favourite Musicals: 35: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1962) (Stephen Sondheim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life: 

First performed: 1962, Alvin Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1999, Open Air Regents Park, London

Productions seen: two

Score: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart

Plot:  Pseudolus, a slave in Ancient Rome, agrees to help his master's son get the girl of his dreams in exchange for his freedom - but the road to liberty never runs smooth...

Five memorable numbers: COMEDY TONIGHT, EVERYBODY OUGHT TO HAVE A MAID, PRETTY LITTLE PICTURE, THAT'LL SHOW HIM, FREE

The original 1962 FORUM won an impressive six Tony Awards, but one contributor got nothing... composer Stephen Sondheim.  Yes, it won Best Musical but that is for the overall production: Shevelove and Gelbart won for their riotous book, George Abbott won for his direction, Zero Mostel and David Burns won for their performances, Harold Prince won Best Musical producer... but the score? Nothing.  It can be argued that it was a crowded field that year: nominations went to Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh for LITTLE ME, Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF and, the eventual winner, Lionel Bart for OLIVER! - but a nomination for BRAVO GIOVANNI, a vehicle for opera singer Cesare Siepi?  You would think that Sondheim could comfort himself with his Best Score awards for WEST SIDE STORY or GYPSY - wrong!  The Score Award was discontinued from 1952 to 1962.  He would finally be nominated for Best Score with his next show DO I HEAR A WALTZ?, small comfort for what had been a difficult process writing with Richard Rodgers.  Not that FORUM was a breeze either; rewrites, recasting and the baffling out-of-town lukewarm response.  But Sondheim concentrated on the form of the piece and ditched most of his generic musical comedy songs and, in particular, changed the opening song from the whimsical LOVE IS IN THE AIR to the barnstorming COMEDY TONIGHT and hey presto, a hit was born.  The adage that you can't have a good musical without a good book is proved by Gelbart and Shevelove's excellent writing - based on plays by Plautus - which provides a solid base for the capering, light-hearted songs and the farcical characters.  The role of 'Pseudolus' is a Tony Award magnet on Broadway: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Nathan Lane have all played it and have all won Best Actor in a Musical.  No such luck for London productions but the two revivals I have seen have had barnstorming performances from Roy Hudd at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre in 1999 and Desmond Barrit at the Olivier Theatre in 2004   About time for another revival I reckon...

I was going to choose a clip from Richard Lester's 1966 film version but it is woefully dated despite the involvement of original stars Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford, so instead here is a glorious version of EVERYBODY OUGHT TO HAVE A MAID from the 2010 Proms tribute to Sondheim with a perfect imaginary revival cast of Simon Russell Beale, Daniel Evans, Julian Ovendon and Bryn Terfel - I love this!

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at the Lyttelton, National Theatre - Brother Bankers

What had I let myself in for, I thought, as I sat in the Lyttelton to watch nearly three and a half hours of Italian-translated drama about the banking firm Lehman Brothers who were one of the biggest casualties of the 2008 financial crisis?  I had let myself in for a wonderful night of pure theatre.

Everything about the production purrs along like a Rolls-Royce, making the ride smooth as silk: Sam Mendes direction, Es Devlin's set and the three masterly performances of Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles.  Apart from a few noddy moments in the first of three acts, I was fully drawn into the Lehman's world of finance, their rise in power and influence almost symbiotically matched by the growth of America as a country of risk, investment and money.  Luckily the play's adapter Ben Power has reduced the original Italian playing time of five hours!

In a huge, sleek glass-walled office, a cleaner goes about his work in between cardboard archive boxes which are piled up along the windows looking out into a dark Manhattan night; slowly three figures in formal 19th Century frock coats appear from nowhere: they introduce themselves as Henry, Emmanuel and Mayer Lehman.  Henry arrived in New York from Bavaria in 1844, just another Jewish immigrant from old Europe seeking a new life in the New World.  He travelled down to Alabama and opened a store where he was joined by his brother Emmanuel three years later, and the youngest brother Mayer three years after that.  Their store started buying and re-selling raw cotton and, so quietly and unobtrusively, an empire was born.

And so they rose in prominence and influence, every major setback in the country seemingly to play to their advantage especially during the Civil War when they shifted their offices to New York and, when the War proved cotton an unstable product, moved onto coffee and oil.  When the War ended, they deftly became a bank, better to aid the South's reconstruction through Alabama State funds. Soon after the beginning of the 20th Century, the original three brothers were dead.  Emmanuel's son Phillip headed up the company until his son Robert took over: by then they had helped in setting up Woolworth, Macy's, Sears & Roebuck, Pan Am, Studebaker, RCA, Haliburton and Compaq.

Robert managed to successfully steer the company through the Stock Market crash and following Great Depression but with no family to hand the firm onto at Robert's death, disruptive leadership battles in the boardroom led to the business being sold to American Express.  By the time of it's regained Independence in the 1990s it was heavily involved in the shadier, more risky banking practises.  Eventually it's doctored balance sheets and disastrous subprime mortgage loans forced the company into bankruptcy.

The crash is dealt with relatively swiftly as the climax of the play, it's almost like writer Stefano Massini and adapter Ben Powers felt that it didn't need too much time spent on it, they are more interested in the journey of the family to that moment and how the intentions of the three original brothers were changed into the greed and sharp practises 164 years later.  Through the use of careful symbolism the play slowly takes hold, I loved the constant thread (no pun intended) running through the middle section of a tightrope walker who performed on Wall Street in the 1920s (illustrated by Simon Russell Beale!) until the day he fell off the wire in 1929, almost presaging the Crash.

Massini's play has previously been staged with large casts of actors playing all the members of the Lehman family and their associates but in Sam Mendes' marvellous stroke of genius he has just his three actors play all the roles which affords countless lightning-fast impressions of characters - some of whom you definitely wish to see more of.  Of course Simon Russell Beale is pure joy, as the oldest brother Henry whose early demise from Yellow Fever gives him free rein to appear as flirty maids, Southern belles, an old rabbi, the obsessive Phillip Lehman and as Robert Lehman's hard-as-nails wife Ruth - an incidental but never-to-be-forgotten image is of him doing a very prim and demure twist to "The Beat Goes On"!

Adam Godley also triumphs in various roles but mostly as Robert Lehman, whose love of speed and recklessness almost mirrors the eventual downturn in his family's business under his watch, he also hilariously plays all the women that Philip Lehman methodically dates and rejects following a mathematical rating system and the eventual bride Carrie - he also was born to play a screaming baby!

Ben Miles loses out on the showier roles but is very good as Herbert Lehman, the censorious son of Mayer Lehman who avoided the family business and became a powerful Democratic New York politician, as well as the nasty Lewis Glucksman who rises from being a trader to running the business off the rails and into American Express' domain.

Es Devlin's large glass box set slowly revolves at each new scene to open up a new vista and is a wonderful place to stage the Lehman saga, it also manages a cunning reveal in the final scene when the three actors vanish as a crowd of supernumeraries - and what a shock after living with the three lead actors for over three hours it is to see a large group of people - as the 2008 employees crowded into the office with their cardboard boxes waiting for the bankruptcy phone call.

Jon Clark's lighting is exemplary but the real visual coup is Luke Halls' video cyclorama at the back which seamlessly moves the locations from early New York to the cotton fields and rolling rivers of the South back again to the growing, unstoppable skyline of Manhattan, as Robert Lehman's mania for hanging onto life is illustrated by Godley, Russell Beale and Miles twisting on boxes to Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On" - an inspired choice - Halls' dense downtown skyline spins faster and faster out of control; a remarkable stage image.  A special mention too for the musical underscoring by Candida Caldicot on a piano by the side of the stage.

In a year that has already been full of delights, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY is one of the most unexpectedly powerful; it shows again what only theatre can do: to conjure a world and a span of time by allowing your imagination to fly.

THE TEMPEST at the Barbican - The Bard goes digital...

For a play about the use and misuse of magical powers, I have not yet seen a production of THE TEMPEST that was particularly filled with wonder.  It's almost as if directors are afraid to embrace it, as if they are worried that it will be criticized as being too obvious, too much like the over-produced Shakespeare productions of the actor/managers of old.

So it was a surprise to hear that Gregory Doran's new RSC production had gone for a tie-in with Intel to include video projections and motion-capture technology - well if that wouldn't bring the wonder then something was seriously wrong!  The other selling point was that Simon Russell Beale was playing Prospero which in itself is a bit of a special effect.

I am still unsure where I sit with THE TEMPEST, it has one of my favourite Shakespearean speeches and other moments of great poetry but the fragmented nature of the plot means that the vengeful Prospero, by far the most interesting character, is frequently absent from the stage.  We seem to spend an awful lot of time with the Milan/Naples faction of lost lords, none of whom are interesting.

Prospero was Duke of Milan but was deposed by his brother Antonio, aided by the King of Naples.  Helped by courtier Gonzalo, Prospero escaped with his young daughter Miranda in a small boat, also laden with his magic books.  They land on an island where Prospero discovers Ariel, a spirit trapped in a tree by the now-dead witch Sycorax, and her disfigured son Caliban.  Prospero easily subjugates both but promises Ariel he will release him one day.

Prospero learns that Antonio, the King and his son Prince Ferdinand are on a boat nearby so he conjures a mighty storm to sink the ship and the passengers wash up on the island.  Prospero and Miranda discover Ferdinand and the young couple - of course - fall instantly in love.  The surviving passengers remain lost until Prospero brings all together, finally reconciled with friend and foe alike.

For all it's whiz-bang graphics, at the production's centre was Simon Russell Beale troubled Prospero.  It was an interesting performance, shot through with Beale's very human qualities as an actor, none more so than his reading of the wonderful "Our revels now are ended..." speech.  Rather than playing it for just the poetry of the words, he spun the words with a real feeling of bitterness; it felt like his Prospero was aware that his life has been wasted on his island and it seemed that he is realization of Miranda's love for Ferdinand will leave him truly alone.

The play's climactic scene - where Prospero finally gathers all the characters of the island and the shipwrecked boat together - was played very mournfully, Prospero's muted forgiveness of his brother and the King for overthrowing him, as well as forgiving Caliban for his murderous plot with the drunken servants, seemed more like a man who is almost broken with the weight of seeking vengeance.  However his final speech - where Prospero pleads for the audience to give him his freedom now his magic has been abandoned - was very moving.

The always dependable James Hayes was great fun as the drunk butler Stephano although a little Simon Trinder as the jester Trinculo went a long way.  Jenny Rainsford was very likeable as Miranda and I liked Mark Quartley as Ariel, a role possibly made more difficult by the technology, but he made the spirit a real presence with his hesitant tiptoe walk and clambering about the set.  Joe Dixon was also fine as Caliban but again seemed imbued with the mournful feel of the production.

The big selling point - going by the size of the Intel logo on the poster at any rate - was the use of computer graphics and motion-capture and they certainly were arresting and occasionally thrilling.  Stephen Brimson Lewis designed a large standing set of a shipwrecked hull and from above the stage there is a cylindrical shape which occasionally descended, such as when Prospero reminds Ariel of how he was trapped in a tree by the witch Sycorax - in an instant the tree seemed to appear from nowhere, it's spindly branches cracking and groaning, only to vanish as quickly as it arrived.

 

I noticed the occasional flash of light on Ariel's costume which showed where the motion-capture sensors were; at certain moments Quartley would make a movement and suddenly Ariel was projected onto the stage trapped in the tree, flapping above the stage like a frightening phoenix or walking through the air high above the stage.  The disappointing thing though was I would rather have watched the ethereal Quartley than any video-game approximation of him.

The computer graphics came into their own in Miranda and Ferdinand's wedding masque where the three goddesses Iris, Ceres and Juno serenade them with operatic voices.  As they do this, the stage was flooded with almost fauvist landscapes, vividly coloured mountains and fields as well as glowing peacock feathers, and multi-coloured flowers appearing on the goddess' dress as she hovered above the stage.

An interesting experiment certainly but the wrecked ship set was a cumbersome one and left little space for the video projections to really work on the whole of the stage; I feel it would have worked better if the set had occasionally broke apart to give a space for the projections to fully transform the stage.

I am glad I saw this version of THE TEMPEST however but for all the IT bells and smells, it will stay in the memory for the essential human element of Simon Russell Beale's troubled and conflicted Prospero.

BENT Rehearsed Reading at the Lyttelton Theatre: The Power of Words...

With it's combination of Pride and celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in the England and Wales, last weekend was probably the best time to revisit the thought-provoking and understated horror of Martin Sherman's BENT, staged as a rehearsed reading as part of the National Theatre's celebration of Queer Theatre.

How, I had wondered, would the play fare as a reading; it's a play that thrives on images as well as words, images that linger long in the mind.  But I had reckoned without Stephen Daldrey's insightful and nuanced handling of the text and the exemplary performances of his cast.  In the Q&A afterward he revealed that he had about seven hours in total to rehearse the reading which elicited a gasp of surprise from the audience as it was a seamless performance.

On 14th August 1979, a group of us who worked at Claude Gill Books in Piccadilly went for a night out at the Criterion, our neighbouring theatre.  I am not sure if we knew what the play was about but we emerged poleaxed.  We made for Henekey's pub next door and I remember not only being unable to speak about what I had just seen but being vaguely angry that my straight colleagues were even trying to discuss it.  I wasn't out (but felt I didn't need to be) and it was possibly the first time I had experienced seeing gay men represented as anything other than camp caricatures; this was my first exposure to BENT, seen in it's original production directed by Robert Chetwyn and starring Ian McKellen and Tom Bell.

That production haunted me, in particular the wonderful understated performance of Tom Bell as Horst, contrasting against the usual overly-showy McKellen.  I saw it again in 1990 in Sean Mathias' less-memorable production which again starred Serena opposite the milquetoast Michael Cashman.  Cashman chaired the Q&A afterward and was very eloquent about how that production not only came to be staged initially as a fundraiser to set up the charity Stonewall to fight Section 28 but also how Richard Eyre invited the production to be staged at the National Theatre.

Again talk of that initial fundraiser at the Adelphi in 1989 made me mentally beat myself up about not seeing it as it meant I missed Ian Charleson's performance of club-ower Greta, less than 6 months later he had died.  Cashman spoke fondly about Ian and it always makes me smile when I hear my favourite actor remembered with love.  Mathias' production also led to his 1997 film which is a fairly inert experience.  But that was then and this is now... 

Russell Tovey was excellent as Max, the black sheep of a wealthy family who has found Wiemar Berlin to be his playground: making black-market deals, living on his wits, selling drugs and finding plenty of men to play with despite his relationship with dancer Rudy (sweetly petulant George MacKay).  The play starts out as a comedy with Rudy tartly telling a hungover Max about what he got up to during his drunken binge but the tone darkens when the SS arrive to arrest Max's pickup Wolf who is a member of Ernst Rohm's SA, it's the morning after "The Night of the Long Knives" when Hitler had Rohm's Brownshirts organization liquidized by the SS.  Wolf is murdered and the lovers are on the run.

They turn to Greta, the self-serving owner of the gay club but Greta, although gay, has a wife and children to hide behind, and he even reveals he betrayed them to the SS to deflect attention from his club.  Giles Terera seized all the opportunities the role offers and sang Greta's haunting song "Streets of Berlin" very well, indeed it seemed to linger in the air throughout the play.  Max and Rudy's hopes of escaping to Amsterdam are dashed when Max's closeted Uncle Freddie can only supply a single ticket which Max refuses; in this one small scene, Simon Russell Beale was delicious.

Max and Rudy are finally arrested and deported to Dachau as "Anti-social" members of society.  On the train Rudy is singled out for brutality by an officer (all the SS officers were played with understated terror by Pip Torrens) and Max is made to help beat him to death to prove he means nothing to him.  Max later reveals that he was also forced to have sex with a dead Jewish girl to prove he is not gay and once at the camp wears a yellow star to prove he is a Jew which actually wins him more concessions once in the camp.

There he meets gay political activist Horst (a powerful Paapa Essiedu) who witnessed what happened on the train and who wears a pink triangle and is disgusted that Max is denying his reality.  Max gets Horst onto his mind-numbing but relatively safe work detail of moving rocks from one pile to another next to the camp's electric fence.  Slowly the men prove that love can flourish in the stoniest of ground and Horst even verbally makes love to Max during one of their enforced rest periods standing a few feet apart.  But eventually - and in the worst circumstance - Max must admit to the world and himself that he is a homosexual...

As I said the play for me had lived in memory through it's visuals - Greta's drag act, the shadowy train, the bare stage with it's electrified fence (and constant low-level humming), two piles of rocks and a death-pit as well as the visual shock of Wolf's onstage nudity - but here, with just Sherman's text to concentrate on, it proved riveting and possibly will be the version of the play I most remember.

Martin Sherman spoke about it's history: written for Gay Sweatshop, the artistic director deliberately passed on it so it could be seen by a bigger audience but it was initially rejected by the Royal Court and Hampstead would only stage it with a gay director - none of whom took up the challenge.  Finally picked up by director Robert Chetwyn and with the star names of Ian McKellen and Tom Bell attached, it was finally staged at the Royal Court to huge popular appeal - but still with Court management disapproval and fairly hostile press reviews.  No leading West End producers would touch it until the independant producer Eddie Kulukundis brought it in to the Criterion (which is where I came in!) but only on the proviso from the Society of West End Theatre that it would be gone by December as it would be distasteful to be seen at Christmas time in the West End.  Fairly shameful eh?  Stephen Daldry also commented on the impact the production made on him as a young theatregoer. 

As was also touched on in the after-show discussion, BENT's power to shock and move is ever-timely and there was a hint that there might be a new revival next year.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to see this...

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY: TEN BEST MALE PERFORMANCES

Happy birthday to William Shakespeare... born 453 years ago (and died 401 years ago).

Eight years ago I compiled four Top Ten lists of my favourite Shakespeare performances - lead & supporting male and lead & supporting female.

Eight years is a long time in theatre-going so to celebrate the greatest playwright ever, here is my updated list of favourite lead actors and their performances in key roles; these are the ones that all new interpretations are judged against.

BEST ACTOR (in alphabetical order):

 SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (King Lear - 2014)

  SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Iago - 1997)

 IAN CHARLESON (Hamlet - 1989)

 RALPH FIENNES (Richard III - 2016)

 HENRY GOODMAN (Shylock - 1999)

 IAN HOLM (King Lear - 1997)

 DEREK JACOBI (King Lear - 2010)

 RORY KINNEAR (Hamlet - 2010)

 IAN McKELLEN (Richard III - 1990)

 JONATHAN PRYCE (Shylock - 2015)

150 word review: MR FOOTE'S OTHER LEG by Ian Kelly

I was interested in reading Ian Kelly's award-winning biography of the Georgian stage actor and celebrity Samuel Foote after seeing Kelly's play of the same name which starred the dazzling Simon Russell Beale.

Kelly tells the stranger-than-fiction life story well although I found the first section dealing with Foote's first burst of fame - as a true-crime writer when an uncle murdered his older brother - quite lumpy.

However Kelly excels when Foote decides on a stage career, effortlessy conjuring up the exciting, tinderbox atmosphere of being a stage performer in 18th Century London.  Kelly draws the needling friendship between Foote and David Garrick very well and handles well the wide-ranging supporting cast of nobles, artists, scientists and doctors as well as servants, lawyers, murderers and prostitutes.

Kelly navigates the quickening rapids of Foote's downfall particularly well - a celebrity seemingly destroyed by his own fame.

Highly recommended.

The 9th Annual Chrissie Awards... may I have the envelope please?

Yes it is that time again, get your best schmatta on and be seated in time for the ceremony, it is New Year which must mean the awarding of the 9th Annual Chrissies... theatreland's most sought-after awards.

BEST DRAMA (Original/Revival)

 

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE - Arthur Miller (Wyndhams)

 

Nominees:

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES - Hampton (Donmar) / NOT I; FOOTFALLS; ROCKABY - Beckett (The Pit) / MR. FOOTE'S OTHER LEG - Kelly (Hampstead) / THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT - Guirgis (Lyttelton)

BEST MUSICAL (Original/Revival)

GYPSY - Arthur Laurents / Jule Styne / Stephen Sondheim (Savoy)

Nominees:

GRAND HOTEL - Davis / Wright / Forrest / Yeston (Southwark) / KINKY BOOTS - Fierstein / Lauper (Adelphi) / SWEENEY TODD - Wheeler / Sondheim (Coliseum) / XANADU - Carter Beane / Farrar / Lynne (Southwark Playhouse)

BEST BALLET/OPERA *new award*

  WOOLF WORKS - Wayne McGregor (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

MONOTONES I & II; THE TWO PIGEONS - Ashton (Covent Garden) / THE NUTCRACKER - Wright (Covent Garden) / ROMEO AND JULIET - McMillan (Covent Garden) / SLEEPING BEAUTY - Bourne (Sadler's Wells)

BEST ACTOR (Drama)

 SIMON RUSSELL BEALE - Mr Foote's Other Leg (Hampstead)

Nominees:

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Temple) / CHIWETEL EJIOFOR (Everyman) / JONATHAN PRYCE (The Merchant of Venice) / MARK STRONG (A View From The Bridge)

BEST ACTRESS (Drama)

 

LISA DWAN - Not I; Footfalls; Rockaby (The Pit)

Nominees:

JANET McTEER (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) / JULIET STEVENSON (Happy Days) / ZOE WANAMAKER (Stevie) / PENELOPE WILTON (Taken At Midnight)

BEST ACTOR (Musical)

KILLIAN DONNELLY - Kinky Boots (Adelphi)

Nominees:

SCOTT GARNHAM (Grand Hotel) / DAVID HAIG (Guys and Dolls) / MATT HENRY (Kinky Boots) / JAMIE PARKER (Guys and Dolls)

BEST ACTRESS (Musical)

  IMELDA STAUNTON - Gypsy (Savoy)

Nominees:

CARLY ANDERSON (Xanadu) / JANIE DEE (A Little Night Music)

EMMA THOMPSON (Sweeney Todd) / SOPHIE THOMPSON (Guys and Dolls)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Drama)

MARK GATISS - Three Days In The Country (Lyttelton)

Nominees:

SEAN CAMPION (All The Angels) / DERMOT CROWLEY (Everyman) / PEARCE QUIGLEY (The Beaux Strategm) / YUL VASQUEZ (The Motherfucker With The Hat)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Drama)

JUDI DENCH - The Winter's Tale (Garrick)

Nominees:

KATE DUCHENE (Everyman) / DERVLA KERWIN (Mr Foote's Other Leg) / SYLVESTRA LE TOUZEL (Waste) / OLIVIA WILLIAMS (Waste)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Musical)

 JAMIE PARKER - A Little Night Music (Palace)

Nominees:

DAN BURTON (Gypsy) / NEIL McCAUL (Guys and Dolls) / PHILIP QUAST (Sweeney Todd) / GEORGE RAE (Grand Hotel)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Musical)

LARA PULVER - Gypsy (Savoy) 

Nominees:

CYNTHIA ERRIVO (Songs For A New World) / HAYDN GWYNNE (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown) / LAURA PITT-PULFORD (A Little Night Music) / JOANNA RIDING (A Little Night Music)

BEST BALLET/OPERA MALE *new award*

 

STEVEN McRAE - Romeo and Juliet (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (The Nutcracker) / STEVEN McRAE (The Nutcracker) / STEVEN McRAE (The Two Pigeons) / GEORGE RAE (Grand Hotel)

BEST BALLET/OPERA FEMALE *new award*

ALESSANDRA FERRI - Woolf Works (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

FRANCESCA HAYWARD (The Nutcracker) / IANA SALENKO (The Nutcracker) / IANA SALENKO (Romeo and Juliet) / IANA SALENKO (The Two Pigeons)

BEST DIRECTOR

IVO VAN HOVE - A View From The Bridge (Wyndhams)

Nominees:

Walter Asmus (Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby) / Richard Eyre (Mr Foote's Other Leg) / Jonathan Munby (The Merchant of Venice) / Indhu Rubasingham (The Motherfucker With The Hat)

BEST DESIGNER

 ES DEVLIN - Hamlet (Barbican)

 Nominees:

CIGUÉ, WE NOT I, WAYNE McGREGOR (Woolf Works) / ROBERT JONES (The Motherfucker With The Hat) / KATRINA LINDSAY (Dara) / JAN VERSWEYVELD (A View From the Bridge)

BEST LIGHTING

 NEIL AUSTIN - Dara (Lyttelton)

Nominees:

LUCY CARTER (Woolf Works) / JAMES FARNCOMBE (Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby) / TIM MITCHELL (Taken At Midnight) / JAN VERSWEYVELD (A View From The Bridge)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Musical)

 JERRY MITCHELL - Kinky Boots (Adelphi)

Nominees:

DREW McONIE (In The Heights) / TIM PROUD (Grand Hotel) / SUSAN STROMAN (The Scottsboro Boys) / NATHAN M. WRIGHT (Xanadu)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Ballet) *new award*

WAYNE McGREGOR - Woolf Works (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

FREDERICK ASHTON (Monotones I & II/The Two Pigeons) / DAVID BINTLEY (The King Dances) / KENNETH McMILLAN (Romeo and Juliet) / PETER WRIGHT (The Nutcracker)