Theatre of War: WAR HORSE at the Lyttelton Theatre; THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER Mixed Programme at Covent Garden

As was expected, the theatre also marked the Centenary of the end of Word War I in November and I saw two of the productions that marked the event.

First off was the more obvious one, the National Theatre's game-changing production of WAR HORSE which had been on manoeuvres around the country before reaching the Lyttelton Theatre stable for an extended stay until the start of January.

As Mr and Mrs World know by now, WAR HORSE is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo about Albert Narracott who, although under-age, joins up to find his beloved horse Joey who has been sold to the army and is somewhere on the Western Front; while there boy and horse both experience the carnage of war at first hand.  I was lucky to see both the original 2007 production and the 2008 revival, both at the Olivier Theatre and both were very moving, involving productions - just ask Stephen Sondheim who was a blubbing wreck in 2007 on the night we went!

It then moved to the New London Theatre where it had an amazing run from 2009 to 2016.  Joey has since become a mainstay of many Remembrance celebrations, a genuine iconic presence.  I had such vivid memories of the show that it was a surprise that it was nearly ten years since I had seen it last so another visit was definitely on the cards.

The good news is that Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris' production - here re-directed by Katie Henry - still delivers the emotional crescendo which had the Lyttelton audience sobbing and sniffing and there are certain images that are indelible once you have seen them, however...  it is a given that no one really goes to see WAR HORSE for the cast's performances - Nick Dear's adaptation is more weighted towards Joey, his equine rival Topthorn and the Narracott's family goose - but even by these standards the anonymity of the performances was quite astonishing.

Thomas Dennis as Albert hardly registered and, as his irascible father Ted, Gwilym Lloyd huffed and puffed to very little effect.  There is also a very odd performance from Ben Ingles as the supposedly-sympathetic officer Lt. Nicholls who promises to care for Joey - it was nothing I could really pinpoint but I wouldn't trust him with a My Little Pony toy, let alone our plucky Joey.  Even the usual laugh-generator role of the f-ing Sgt Thunder went for nothing in Jason Furnival's hands.

However I would like to praise Peter Becker as the caring German officer Friedrich Muller who helps Joey and Topthorn when they are captured on the wrong side of No Man's Land, he at least convinced that Muller was a three-dimensional character.  Jo Castelton as Rose Narracott also found some depth as Albert's careworn but worried mother and the John Tams' songs were well sung by Bob Fox.

The best performances were unsurprisingly by the Handspring life-size puppets of Joey, both foal and horse, Topthorn and - yes - the goose.  The puppeteers invested them all with character and emotions which made it very easy to forget the actors and concentrate on them.  In particular, the scenes where  Joey and Topthorn were commandeered by the German army as pack-horses were full of unspoken pathos, none more so than Joey's gentle nuzzling of Topthorn as he dies, exhausted and broken.  The excellent touch of Topthorn's demise being made real by having his puppeteers slowly emerge from the puppet and slowly walking offstage is incredibly effective.

I did feel something was lost in the transfer to the proscenium stage but Rae Smith's spare design, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler's remarkable puppet design and Paule Constable's lighting still delivered, as did Adrian Sutton's score.  I am glad I experienced WAR HORSE again, but just wish that most of the human cast had invested their roles with the passion that the puppeteers did.

A few days later we saw a more intriguing response to the Centenary, the Royal Ballet's premiere of THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, which was part of a mixed programme with Wayne McGregor's INFRA and the late George Balanchine's SYMPHONY IN C.

The ballet took as it's inspiration the recorded memories of WWI veteran Wally Patch and a contemporary of his, Florence Billington, who in voice-over remember the quiet and lonely devastation they felt at the deaths of friends and a boyfriend respectively.  These spoken memories are interwoven with the lush, sombre score by film composer Dario Marianelli to create an absorbing soundscape to Alastair Marriott's choreography which illustrates the story of Florence and her beau Ted Feltham; from their meeting at a social dance before the war to his enlisting and subsequent death on the battlefield, cradled by Patch as he dies, to Florence receiving the news by telegram to Ted viewing it all from another place.

The ballet was visually stunning with a fractured, broken video playing on the scrim of contemporary footage of the call to arms in 1914 to the solemn procession of the coffin of the Unknown Soldier in 1920, which eventually raised to reveal Es Devlin's minimalist design of rotating flat panels which were played upon by Bruno Poet's stark lighting to create sweeping changes of tone across the stage while the reminiscences of Patch and Billington were heard.

There were good performances from William Bracewell as Ted and Anna Rose O'Sullivan as Florence but in the cold light of day the ballet failed to move; Marriott's choreography was nice to watch but detracted from the pathos of the spoken testimony of individual loss.  There was no profundity in the thoughts behind the movements but more importantly the very real disconnect between the spoken remembrances of the Western Front's living Hell and the precision and athleticism of the male dancers was too strong to ignore.  The piece ultimately felt like there was no real artistic need for being there, it was a commission to fill a brief in the programming.  I also read somewhere the jibe that he can't be THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER if we know his name was Ted Feltham!

The three ballets in the mixed programme seemed to have been selected to counter-point each other, there was no linear connection between them other than to show off the versatility of the Royal ballet company.  McGregor's INFRA from 2008 had twelve dancers hyper-extending in solos and groups to McGregor's signature taxing choreography while above them Julien Opie's illuminated silhouettes walked in solipsistic silence left and right.  It's an obvious leap to get what McGregor is illustrating - the tortured souls underneath those anonymous walkers - but after a while you long for a resolution.  But always good to hear Max Richter's music...

But then the mood was turned on it's head again with George Balanchine's glorious SYMPHONY IN C, danced to the music of Georges Bizet.  Premiered in 1947 in Paris but extensively re-thought for New York City Ballet the following year, Balanchine drew on his extensive knowledge of the Russian classical tradition from his teenage years with the Imperial Ballet and from his years with the Ballet Russes in the 1920s.

Broken down into four movements with new performers for each, SYMPHONY IN C is a whirlwind extravaganza of pure classical technique: it's like every classical ballet finale with the narrative and named characters removed so you can just concentrate on solos, pas de deux and ensemble routines.  With over 50 dancers onstage as it reaches it's conclusion, it felt so impossibly sumptuous and showy that I almost expected a camera crane to swoop in and a director to yell "cut", such is it's feel of a Hollywood musical idea of a big ballet number.

The four couples were excellently danced by Natalia Osipova, Sarah Lamb, Reece Clarke, Marcelino Sambé, William Bracewell, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Yuhue Choe and Luca Acri.  It was by far the most memorable piece of the evening and rather put the others in their place.

I would definitely see SYMPHONY IN C again, I am happy to have seen THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER and INFRA but think I would pass on seeing them again.  However as I said earlier, the mixed programme was a wonderful showcase for the talents of the whole Royal Ballet company.

Congratulations to Vanessa Redgrave who has received her third Best Actress Tony Award nomination for her performance in DRIVING MISS DAISY. She has previously been nominated in 2003 for LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (won) and in 2007 for THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING (lost to Julie White for THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED).

I suspect she will lose out again this year but it's good that she was nominated as her co-stars James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines were not.

As usual the British have some good representation: Jez Butterworth and Nick Stafford are both nominated in the Best Play category for JERUSALEM and WAR HORSE respectively ~ Brian Bedford (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST) and Mark Rylance (JERUSALEM) are both Best Actor nominees ~ Hannah Yelland is nominated alongside Vanessa in the Best Actress category for BRIEF ENCOUNTER ~ Mackenzie Crook is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for JERUSALEM ~ Joanna Lumley is a surprise nominee for Best Supporting Actress as LA BETE flopped ~ Adam Godley is nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for ANYTHING GOES ~ Ultz (JERUSALEM) and Rae Smith (WAR HORSE) are nominated for Best Designer ~ Mark Thompson is nominated for Best Costume Design for LA BETE ~ Paule Constable is nominated for Best Lighting for WAR HORSE ~ Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris share a Best Director nomination for WAR HORSE.

In addition the Handspring Puppet Company will receive a special Tony Award for their remarkable work on WAR HORSE.

However there is no nomination for Daniel Radcliffe for his performance in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING although his co-stars John Larroquette and Tammy Blanchard picked up nominations in the Supporting categories.

It's a shame as his performance was one of the reasons for the show's undeniable success and charm.

Every so often I see a production that reminds me just how powerful true theatre can be.

On Wednesday evening Owen and I saw WAR HORSE at the Olivier Theatre. It has been adapted by Nick Stafford from the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo. I didn't feel particularly fired up to see it when it was announced as I didn't know the book but after it opened to out-and-out rave reviews we managed to get tickets in what is now a sell-out production. I was mesmerised from the start and was held by it until it's cathartic ending.

The simple tale is of a colt who is caught and sold in auction to a poor farmer who entrusts it to his teenage son Albert. They have an immediate connection and Albert names him Joey, raising him to be a fine handsome horse. He even manages to train the thoroughbred into being a plough-horse to save losing him in a bet his father has made with a hated brother-in-law. However it is 1914 and even Albert cannot save his beloved Joey being sold to the Cavalry as a war horse. A young Major has noticed the two of them in the days leading up to the recruitment drive in the village and promises Albert he will have Joey as his horse and will return him by Christmas "when the War's over". Two months later Albert receives news that the Major has been killed in action and, stricken with anxiety for Joey, runs away from home to sign up and find him in the killing grounds of the Western Front. The play then follows the ghastly trials both boy and horse are subjected to over the course of the war to end all wars. The highly emotional story tugs on all possible heartstrings with fate and coincidence sometimes too much at hand. However one goes along with the plot contrivances as the production is so wonderfully involving. Co-directed by Tom Morris and the-always interesting Marianne Elliott the tone never waivers and the clarity of the piece is a hallmark of Elliott's best work. The large company serve the piece well - there are noteworthy performances by Angus Wright as a kindly German officer who saves Joey and another proud stallion Topthorn by using them to pull a German ambulance, Luke Treadaway is an understandably panicky Albert and Thusitha Jayasundera as his fiery but loving mother.
The real stars however are the actors/manipulators who work the life-size puppets of Joey and Topthorn - there should be another word for them as they transcend the name puppet. The horses are worked by three performers - one working the head, one as the chest and front legs, one as the back legs. The metal, wood and canvas frames move sinuously with the movements designed by Toby Sedgwick (who also plays Albert's father) that soon they really do become characters in their own right. Indeed their very stripped-down look helps in your sympathy when you see the horses exposed to the dangers of battle - when one is 'killed' the shell is left on the stage and immediately it connects to images one knows of wasted horses seen in WWI photographs. The design work is truly excellent: Rae Smith (stage), Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler (puppet design for Handspring Puppet Company) and Paule Constable (lighting) deserve all the praise received in the press. Indeed Handspring have also given us swallows, children, crows and a scene-stealing goose! Special mention too for Adrian Sutton's lush musical score and John Tams' evocative folk songs.
The real joy of this production however is the collaboration made between the audience and the performers/production team. The true alchemy of theatre is here, when the leap of imagination asked of the audience is overcome and a real shared experience is created not only between performer and audience member but within the audience itself. The stillness in the audience during the final scenes was palpable, a wonderful feeling. There wasn't a dry eye in the house... even mine, Constant Reader. The explosion of sound during the curtain calls was a welcome relief... and yes that was Stephen Sondheim a few rows in front of me clapping broadly and enthusiastically.

A performance like this evening happens rarely but when it does it is what makes theatre the greatest of the arts.
Just before the lights went down Owen asked where, all those 25 years ago, I had usually sat for "Guys and Dolls" and I pointed out the front-row just off centre. As I've explained before in this blog, that production was the first time I felt that alchemy, when the power of the performers is bounced back to them by the audience's responses and concentration.

There seemed to be quite a few parents with children attending tonight - how wonderful if even just a handful of the young people attending now realise how exciting real theatre can be.

Last week Owen and I went to see the latest in the National Theatre's seasonal stage adaptations of literary children's books. After Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials", Jamila Gavin's "Coram Boy" and Michael Morpurgo's "War Horse" this year's offering is Terry Pratchett's "Nation".

I have never read any of his books but I know they are quirky as all get out so was intrigued by what the evening would hold especially as the adaptation was by Mark Ravenhill, he of SHOPPING AND FUCKING fame.

Sadly the whole thing was Amateur Hour In Dixie (thank you Suzanne).

The play was an uneasy mixture of eco-messaging, Empire-bashing and native dancing with a dash of puppetry, no doubt hoping that some of the WAR HORSE magic might rub off. It didn't.

The plot tells of a young South Seas Islander Mau (well played by Gary Carr) whose return from a boy-to-man trial coincides with a tsunami which wipes out his island's population. Shipwrecked on the island is Ermintrude, a young and prim English girl, who was on her way to see her father who is a Governor in the region. She is accompanied by her salty-mouthed parrot, and unknown to either the boy or girl, also surviving the shipwreck are two of the ship's crew and Ermintrude's former butler who has gone not-so quietly mad after the death of his son from an influenza epidemic and who is determined to kill the rich girl.Ermintrude soon adapts to her surroundings, so much so she changes her name to Daphne - and who wouldn't? Soon she and Mau have a new tribe gathered together from survivors from the surrounding islands - luckily one of them speaks English - and Daphne is soon proving her worth, helping give birth to an islander's baby and sucking the milk out of a huge pig to spit into a bowl to feed it. As you do.... However their idyll is shattered when a tribe of cannibals makes their presence known... and their leader is Cox the murderous former butler.

I presume any of Pratchett's quirkiness has got lost somewhere along the line - apart from the idea that Daphne's father is 156th in line for the throne, and there *is* a flu epidemic remember - so what we are left with is an opposites attract plotline saddled with lovable islander schtick. Which is contrasted against the fact that all the white characters are played as either eye-rolling, murderous scrutbags or Imperialist toffs. Even the late appearance by Daphne's father - who has been flagged up through the show as a decent Englishman- appears with a cricket bat under his arm. As you do. Don't worry Constant Reader, I haven't gone all Daily Mail on you... but I found the saintly islanders vs froth-mouthed British baddies rather infuriating after a while.

As I said, Gary Carr makes a good impression as Mau and Jason Thorpe as the parrot with a dirty word for every occasion was a welcome relief from the the pious platitudes and am-dram performances. A special mention must be made too for Gaye Brown as Daphne's imperious aunt - a caricature sure, but a caricature at least played with a panache.

The design features three large screens behind a revolving island and there were a couple of nice scenic effects utilising them - drowning sailors slowly spinning in space as they are thrown from their ship and an ominous shark slowly emerging from the darkness but that was about all.

The bittersweet ending strove for profundity that would have worked had the relationship between Mau and Daphne ever hinted as having any depth.

After the majestic WAR HORSE, NATION was a National Theatre disappointment.

Designing Theatre...

My last two trips to the National Theatre this year have both been to see new plays adapted from children's literature and it was interesting to see the different ways that they were staged.  The one thing they both did was to give the production teams a free hand - but was it to the detriment of the shows?

First up off the rank was THE LIGHT PRINCESS, a new musical written by alternative pop singer Tori Amos and playwright Samuel Adamson that is based on a fairy tale by George MacDonald.  I honestly had no idea what to expect when we took our seats as I had stayed away from all the reviews.  Indeed I wasn't too sure why I had booked in the first place as I am not a big Amos fan - it just seemed a good show to see on an Autumn Sunday afternoon!  However we were both instantly onside as the front-cloth was a colourful and glittering map of the imaginary lands of Lagobel and Sealand.

The show has a major plus in that it's creative team of director Marianne Elliott, designer Rae Smith and lighting designer Paule Constable were responsible for WAR HORSE.  They have brought their collective excellence to this project too, the show is a visual treat and the somewhat twee story is told with a bold panache by Elliott.  What is truly odd however is that at no time do any of the humans in THE LIGHT PRINCESS ever make you care for them as much as you care for puppet Joey in WAR HORSE.

We follow the story of two motherless royals - Princess Althea (Rosalie Craig), the daughter of the King of Lagobel, has refused to ever cry again following the deaths of both her mother and brother and has become so deliberately light-hearted that she has lost her sense of gravity and floats instead of walking.  Her father (Clive Rowe) is at his wit's end so keeps her locked in a tower bedroom where she is tethered by her faithful servant Piper (Amy Booth-Steel).

Meanwhile in the neighbouring country of Sealand the young Prince Digby (Nick Hendrix) since the loss of his mother has lost all mirth and is continually down-hearted.  His wicked father (Hal Fowler a.k.a. Mr. Kim Wilde) actually had his wife killed and rules his country with an iron fist.  His disconsolate son's only friend is his brother Llewelyn (Kane Oliver Parry) and his only joy is with his mother's falcon.

Of course when the two countries resume their eternal war for each other's land, the two royals are bound somehow to meet and of course fall in love.  But their idyll by the lonely lake in The Wilderness which separates their countries cannot last and all seems lost for the young lovers.

The original story has been rewritten by Adamson to have a rather leaden feminist overtone which at times is bearable but at other times is thumpingly obvious as to appear to be a reworking of a Drill Hall feminist panto from the early 80s.  My other concern was the rather listless score by Adamson and Amos which carries enough of her standard introspection but not enough variation to give the musical it's all-important rise and fall. 

 

Indeed in the second act Clive Rowe had a ballad that was so one-note as to make you wonder if it would actually ever end - it was only the thought that at some point he must have gone to sleep the night before that gave me hope for it's conclusion.  Saying this I have to say that the meeting of Craig and Hendrix in the first act was one of the most lovely and lyrical falling-in-love pas-de-deux I have seen.

These things are all the more irritating because visually the show is a such a triumph.  Of course there is the possible argument that Elliott has stuffed the production with puppetry, physical theatre elements and good old fashioned stage magic to distract from these central weaknesses but these tend to slip your mind when you are keeping an eye out for the scene-stealing rodent that lives in Althea's bookshelf, marvelling at the swirling colourful birds that play key moments in the action and the amphibian creatures of Althea and Digby's lakeside home.

Rosalie Craig's performance was all the more impressive for the physicality that is involved in it.  Whether she is soaring on her wire or being passed around the stage by the onstage acrobats she never dropped the level of her singing and made Althea a passionate and vital presence - if a touch too much of a bluestocking.  Nick Hendrix - last seen as the under-achieving older brother in THE WINSLOW BOY - brought more to Prince Digby than was on the page.

In a sometimes solid, sometimes stolid supporting cast, I particularly enjoyed Malinda Parris as the Serjeant-at-Arms and Laura Pitt-Pulford as the Falconer.  By the fairy-tale finale I must admit I had been swept along by Elliott's mis-en-scene and have booked to see the show again before New Year's Eve so I guess I liked it after all.

The second show which was an even more blatant example of design over content was this year's Christmas production in the Olivier, EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES, adapted for the stage by Carl Miller from the famous novel by Erich Kästner.

 

The National has a history of interesting Christmas shows based on 'intelligent' kid's books - HIS DARK MATERIALS, CORAM BOY, NATION and - yes that show again - WAR HORSE.

 

I have never read EMIL nor seen any of the five film versions so this was all new to me. 

 

Um.. I'm still not too sure what it's all in aid of as we were 20 minutes late due to a mix-up over the start time.  Sigh, sadly this is where my theatrical autism kicks in - if I don't see a show from the lights going down then all I see are people walking around a stage saying words, I just cannot give myself over to it.

 

 

Anyhoo here we are in 1929 Germany and Emil is a young lad who journeys to Berlin from his small town with money saved by his mother from her job that he has to deliver to his grandmother.  On the train journey he shares a carriage with the mysterious Mr. Snow who on learning of Emil's reason for travelling, drugs him and steals the money.  Emil wakes up and chases after the slippery Mr. Snow but where can a young boy who's alone in the city turn to for help in catching an adult?

 

To the 'Detectives' of course.  A rag-tag group of Berliner children who befriend Emil and using their network of friends across the city seek out the nasty Mr. Snow.  Led by the know-it-all Toots and incorporating Emil's girl cousin Pony The Hat (shrugs) Mr. Snow doesn't stand a chance.

 

 

It's a charming tale that tells a good story of friendship helping to triumph over the baddy but it also seemed to be stretched terribly thin across the huge Olivier stage.  Enter Bunny Christie to distract us all with a set that echoed the era of German expressionism with wonky angled sets allied with film and projections to render the stage alive with movement at all times.  As much as I liked the design, it totally engulfed the production - when you are more interested in what the set is going to do rather than what happens to your hero you know something is awry.

 

Out of a fairly non-descript cast, the younger actors impressed the most.  I am fairly certain our Emil was Toby Murray and he had a nice stillness to his performance which made him stand-out from the clamour onstage, Izzy Lee was good as the bolshy daredevil Pony on her bike and Georgie Farmer impressed as the ringleader Toots who is not half as self-assured as he seems.  Ryan Quarterly was also good as Petzoid, one of the gang who all too soon reveals a hatred for all things non-German and turns the play momentarily toward what was to happen soon.

 

 

I'm not sure whether this character exists in the book or whether he has been written that way by Carl Miller but for the rest of the play, after he is ostracised by the group, I wondered what would have happened to our scrappy bunch of crime-busters when the real Nazty men took over.  The slightly uneven and woozy feeling of Bijan Sheibani's production is probably down to a feeling that it's time-setting is too close to an impeding nightmare that one cannot readily put out of one's mind in retrospect.

 

Or maybe I just feel that because I was not totally immersed in the production?

THE COVID CHRISSIES: STEP BACK IN TIME - THE 2000s

Around about now I would be publishing the annual Chrissies Awards for best in 2020 theatre but in this time of COVID that is impossible to do.  So I thought why not look further back than a mere 12 months?  

The Chrissies were invented for the blog era but what about the earlier amazing productions and performers which molded my love of theatre and - more often than not - have proved definitive.  l started blogging in the 2000s so if you want to see them just search this blog for Chrissies... what follows here are like the Chrissies All-Stars.

Here is a remembrance of the 2000s - the names in bold are those no longer with us:

BEST PLAY

 

ALL MY SONS by Arthur Miller (Cottesloe, NT)

 

THE CHALK GARDEN (Bagnold, Donmar) ~ THE CHERRY ORCHARD (Chekhov, Cottesloe)

DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Miller, Lyric) ~ THE GOAT OR WHO IS SYLVIA? (Albee, Almeida)

THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (Lorca, Lyttelton) ~ JUDGEMENT DAY (Horvath, Almeida)

JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK (O'Casey, Grammercy NY) ~ MARY STUART (Donmar)

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Shakespeare, Olivier) ~ THE MYSTERIES (Harrison, Cottesloe)

A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN (Woolf/Atkins, Hampstead)

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Williams, Donmar)

THE TALKING CURE (Hampton, Cottesloe) ~ UNCLE VANYA (Chekhov, Donmar)

WAR HORSE (Stafford, Olivier) ~ WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (Albee, Apollo)

THE WILD DUCK (Ibsen, Donmar) ~ THE WINTER'S TALE (Shakespeare, Olivier)

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING (Hare, Lyttelton)

  

BEST MUSICAL

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE by Stephen Sondheim / James Lapine (Menier)

 

AVENUE Q (Lopez/Marx, Golden NY) ~ CABARET (Kander/Ebb, Studio 54 NY)

THE CAR MAN (Bizet, Sadler's Wells) ~ CLOSER TO HEAVEN (Tennant/Lowe, Arts)

FOLLIES (Sondheim, Landor) ~ GRAND HOTEL (Wright/Forrest/Yeston, Donmar)

GYPSY (Styne/Sondheim, St James NY) ~ HAIRSPRAY (Shaiman/Whitman, Neil Simon NY)

THE HARDER THEY COME (various, Barbican/Playhouse)

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Herman, Menier/Playhouse)

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Sondheim, Menier)

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Ashman/Menkin, Menier)

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Sondheim, Donmar)

NUTCRACKER! (Tchaikowsky, Sadler's Wells) ~ PACIFIC OVERTURES (Sondheim, Donmar)

SWAN LAKE (Tchaikowsky, Sadler's Wells) ~ SWEET CHARITY (Colman/Fields, Menier)

TABOO (O'Dowd/Frost/Themis/Stevens, Venue) ~ XANADU (Lynne/Farrar, Helen Hayes NY)

BEST ACTOR - PLAY

 

JAMES HAZELDINE - All My Sons (Cottesloe, NT)

 

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Hamlet, Lyttelton)

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Much Ado About Nothing)

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Twelfth Night, Donmar)

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (The Winter's Tale - Old Vic)

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Uncle Vanya) ~ BRIAN DENNEHY (Death of A Salesman)

RICHARD GRIFFITHS (The History Boys, Lyttelton) ~ DAVID HAIG (Donkey's Years, Comedy)

DAVID HAIG (Loot, Tricycle) ~ DEREK JACOBI (Twelfth Night, Wyndhams)

PATERSON JOSEPH (The Emperor Jones, Olivier)

ALEX JENNINGS (Present Laughter, Lyttelton)

ALEX JENNINGS (The Winter's Tale) ~ ADRIAN LESTER (Henry V, Olivier)

WILLIAM H MACY (American Buffalo, Donmar) ~ BRIAN F O'BYRNE (Doubt, Walter Kerr NY)

HARISH PATEL (Rafta Rafta, Lyttelton) ~ JONATHAN PRYCE (The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia)

MARK RYLANCE (Boeing Boeing, Comedy)

 

BEST ACTRESS - PLAY

EILEEN ATKINS - A Room of One's Own (Hampstead)

 

EILEEN ATKINS (Honour, Cottesloe) ~ STOCKARD CHANNING (The Exhonerated, Riverside)

FRANCES DE LA TOUR (The History Boys) ~ CLAIRE HIGGINS (Vincent in Brixton, Wyndhams)

CHERRY JONES (Doubt) ~ HELEN MIRREN (Orpheus Descending, Donmar)

VANESSA REDGRAVE (The Cherry Orchard)

VANESSA REDGRAVE (The Year of Magical Thinking)

IMELDA STAUNTON (Entertaining Mr Sloane, Trafalgar) ~ MEERA SYAL (Rafta Rafta)

KATHLEEN TURNER (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) ~ MARGARET TYZACK (The Chalk Garden)

HARRIET WALTER (Mary Stuart) ~ JULIE WALTERS (All My Sons)

ZOE WANAMAKER (Much Ado About Nothing) ~ ZOE WANAMAKER (The Rose Tattoo, Olivier)

RACHEL WEISZ (A Streetcar Named Desire) ~ PENELOPE WILTON (The Chalk Garden)

PENELOPE WILTON (The House of Bernarda Alba)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - PLAY

 

SIMON PAISLEY DAY - Entertaining Mr Sloane (Trafalgar Studios)

SAMUEL BARNETT (The History Boys) ~ MICHAEL BRYANT (The Cherry Orchard)

RON COOK (Twelfth Night, Wyndhams)  ~ BEN DANIELS (All My Sons)

PHIL DANIELS (The Winter's Tale) ~ DAVID DAWSON (The Entertainer, Old Vic)

DOUGLAS HENSHALL (Death of A Salesman) ~ NICHOLAS LE PREVOST (The Wild Duck)

MATTHEW LILLARD (Bash, Almeida) ~ KEVIN McNALLY (Hamlet, Wyndhams)

JOHN NORMINGTON (The Winter's Tale) ~ ROBERT PASTORELLI (A Streetcar Named Desire)

AIDAN QUINN (The Exonerated) ~ CORIN REDGRAVE (The Chalk Garden)

DOMINIC ROWAN (The Talking Cure)

ADRIAN SCARBOROUGH (Time and The Conways, Lyttelton)

MARK STRONG (Uncle Vanya) ~ RUSSELL TOVEY (The History Boys)

PETER WIGHT (Mouth to Mouth, Duke of Yorks)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - PLAY

 

DEBORAH FINDLAY - A Winter's Tale (Olivier, NT)

 

FRANCES BARBER (Madame de Sade, Wyndhams)

BRID BRENNAN (Pillars of The Community, Lyttelton)

EMMA CUNNIFFE (The Entertainer) ~ LAURA DONNELLY (Judgement Day)

JANINE DUVITSKI (Remembrance of Things Past, Cottesloe)

DEBORAH FINDLAY (The Cut, Donmar)

DEBORAH FINDLAY (The House of Bernarda Alba) ~ PATRICIA HODGE (Summerfolk, Olivier)

FELICITY JONES (The Chalk Garden) ~ SINEAD MATTHEWS (The Wild Duck)

MARY McCOMACK (Bash) ~ HELEN McCRORY (Twelfth Night)

HELEN McCRORY (Uncle Vanya) ~ RONDI REED (August: Osage County, Lyttelton)

SOPHIE THOMPSON (The Female of The Species, Vaudeville)

JODIE WHITTAKER (Awake and Sing, Almeida) ~ RUTH WILSON (A Streetcar Named Desire)

SARAH WOODWARD (Judgement Day) ~ SARAH WOODWARD (Present Laughter)

BEST ACTOR - MUSICAL

 

EUAN MORTON - Taboo (The Venue)

 

SCOTT AMBLER (Play Without Words, Lyttelton)

DESMOND BARRIT (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Olivier)

ROLAN BELL (The Harder They Come) ~ DANIEL EVANS (Sunday In The Park With George)

HARVEY FIERSTEIN (Fiddler on The Roof, Minskoff NY) ~ HARVEY FIERSTEIN (Hairspray)

ALEXANDER HANSON (A Little Night Music) ~ NEIL PATRICK HARRIS (Cabaret)

DOUGLAS HODGE (La Cage aux Folles) ~ CHEYENNE JACKSON (Xanadu)

PAUL KEATING (Closer To Heaven) ~ PAUL KEATING (Little Shop of Horrors)

DENIS LAWSON (La Cage aux Folles) ~ DOMINIC NORTH (Swan Lake)

JONATHAN OLLIVIER (Swan Lake) ~ JULIAN OVENDEN (Grand Hotel)

JULIAN OVENDEN (Merrily We Roll Along) ~ CLARKE PETERS (Porgy and Bess, Savoy)

ALAN VINCENT (The Car Man)

BEST ACTRESS - MUSICAL

 

PATTI LuPONE - Gypsy (St James, NY)

 

FRANCES BARBER (Closer To Heaven) ~ SHOSHANA BEAN (Wicked, Gershwin NY)

KERRY BIGGIN (Nutcracker!) ~ KERRY BUTLER (Xanadu)

STEPHANIE D'ABRUZZO (Avenue Q) ~ MARIANNE FAITHFULL (The Black Rider, Barbican)

JENNY GALLOWAY (My One and Only, Piccadilly) ~ NICOLA HUGHES (Porgy and Bess)

MARISSA JARET WINOKUR (Hairspray) ~ DIANE LANGTON (Spend Spend Spend, Piccadilly)

JESSICA MARTIN (Sweeney Todd, Bridewell)

MARY ELIZABETH MASTRANTONIO (Grand Hotel)

MICHELA MEAZZA (The Car Man) ~ IDINA MENZEL (Wicked, New Victoria)

LUCY NEWTON (Taboo) ~ TAMZIN OUTHWAITE (Sweet Charity) 

LYN PAUL (Taboo) ~ SHERIDAN SMITH (Little Shop of Horrors)

SAMANTHA SPIRO (Merrily We Roll Along)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - MUSICAL

 

PAUL BAKER - Taboo (The Venue)

 

BOY GEORGE (Taboo) ~ DANIEL EVANS (Grand Hotel)

DANIEL EVANS (Merrily We Roll Along) ~ O-T FAGBENLE (Porgy and Bess)

BOYD GAINES (Contact, Lincoln Center) ~ DAVID HAIG (Mary Poppins, Prince Edward)

ALASDAIR HARVEY (Come Dancing, Stratford East)

CONLETH HILL (The Producers, Drury Lane)

GEOFFREY HUTCHINGS (Cabaret. Lyric) ~ BARRY JAMES (Chicago, Adelphi)

SAM KELLY (A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To The Forum)

ADAM LONGWORTH (Taboo) ~ PAUL J MEDFORD (Sweet Charity)

JOHN PARTRIDGE (Taboo) ~ MARCUS POWELL (The Harder They Come)

CHRIS TUMMINGS (The Harder They Come) ~ MARC UMBERS (Sweet Charity)

BEN VEREEN (Wicked) ~ RICHARD WINSOR (The Car Man)

 

 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - MUSICAL

 

LAURA BENANTI - Gypsy (St James, NY)

HELEN BAKER (Grand Hotel) ~ KERRY BIGGIN (The Car Man)

JACKIE CLUNE (Taboo) ~ TAMEKA EMPSON (The Big Life, Apollo)

SUSANNAH FELLOWS (Chicago) ~ JOSEFINA GABRIELLE (Sweet Charity)

LOUISE GOLD (Mamma Mia, Prince Edward) ~ NINA GOLDMAN (Swan Lake)

KAISA HAMMARLUND (A Little Night Music) ~ SHEILA HANCOCK (Cabaret)

ANN HARADA (Avenue Q) ~ RACHEL LESKOVAC (Spend, Spend, Spend)

STACEY ROCA (Closer To Heaven) ~ CAROLE SHELLEY (Cabaret)

MARY TESTA (Xanadu) ~ JOSIE WALKER (Side By Side By Sondheim, Venue)

DEBORAH YATES (Contact) ~ KAREN ZIEMBA (Contact)

LEIGH ZIMMERMAN (The Producers)

BEST DIRECTOR

 

HOWARD DAVIES - All My Sons (Cottesloe, NT) 

 

MATTHEW BOURNE (The Car Man) ~ MATTHEW BOURNE (Swan Lake)

BILL BRYDEN (The Mysteries) ~ HOWARD DAVIES (The House of Bernarda Alba)

MARIANNE ELLIOTT / TOM MORRIS (War Horse) ~ ROBERT FALLS (Death of A Salesman)

MICHAEL GRANDAGE (The Chalk Garden) ~ MICHAEL GRANDAGE (The Cut)

MICHAEL GRANDAGE (Grand Hotel) ~ MICHAEL GRANDAGE (Merrily We Roll Along)

MICHAEL GRANDAGE (The Wild Duck) ~ NICHOLAS HYTNER (Much Ado About Nothing)

NICHOLAS HYTNER (The Winter's Tale) ~ PHYLLIDA LLOYD (Mary Stuart)

JAMES MacDONALD  (Judgement Day) ~ SAM MENDES / ROB MARSHALL (Cabaret)

ANTHONY PAGE (The Goat) ~ ANTHONY PAGE (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf)

ANNA D SHAPIRO (August: Osage County)

 

BEST DESIGNER

 

WILLIAM DUDLEY - All My Sons (Cottesloe, NT)

 

MIRIAM BEUTHER (Judgement Day) ~ ROBERT BRILL (Cabaret)

LEZ BROTHERSTON (Play Without Words) ~ LEZ BROTHERSTON (Swan Lake)

WILLIAM DUDLEY (The Mysteries) ~ DAVID FARLEY (Sunday In The Park With George)

TIM HATLEY (Rafta Rafta) ~ TIM HATLEY (The Talking Cure)

TIM HATLEY (Vincent in Brixton) ~ ROB HOWELL (Lulu, Almeida)

CATHERINE MARTIN (La Boheme, Broadway NY)

VICKI MORTIMER (The House of Bernarda Alba)

VICKI MORTIMER (The Wild Duck) ~ CHRISTOPHER ORAM (Grand Hotel)

CHRISTOPHER ORAM (A Streetcar Named Desire)

TODD ROSENTHAL (August: Osage County)

RAE SMITH (All's Well That Ends Well, Olivier)

RAE SMITH / BASIL JONES / ADRIAN KOHLER (War Horse)

ANTHONY WARD (Nutcracker!)

BEST LIGHTING

 

PAULE CONSTABLE - War Horse (Olivier, NT)

NEIL AUSTIN (Judgement Day)

NEIL AUSTIN (A Streetcar Named Desire) ~ NEIL AUSTIN (The Wild Duck)

NATASHA CHILVERS/MIKE ROBERTSON, TIMOTHY BIRD (video) 

                                                                                (Sunday In The Park With George)

PAULE CONSTABLE (The House of Bernarda Alba) ~ PAULE CONSTABLE (Play Without Words)

RORY DEMPSTER (The Good Hope, Cottesloe)

PEGGY EISENHAUR / MIKE BALDASSARI (Cabaret)

RICK FISHER (Swan Lake) ~ RICK FISHER (The Winter's Tale)

HOWARD HARRISON (Edward Scissorhands, Sadler's Wells)

MARK HENDERSON (All My Sons)

HARTLEY TA KEMP (A Little Night Music) ~ PETER MUMFORD (All's Well That Ends Well)

PETER MUMFORD (The Talking Cure) ~ PETER MUMFORD (Vincent In Brixton)

HUGH VANSTONE (Grand Hotel) ~ HUGH VANSTONE (Mary Stuart)

HUGH VANSTONE (Uncle Vanya)

 

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

 

MATTHEW BOURNE - Swan Lake (Sadler's Wells)

MATTHEW BOURNE (The Car Man) ~ MATTHEW BOURNE (Edward Scissorhands)

MATTHEW BOURNE (Nutcracker!) ~ MATTHEW BOURNE (Play Without Words)

JONATHAN BUTTERELL / JEROME ROBBINS (Fiddler On The Roof) ~ LES CHILD (Taboo)

ADAM COOPER (Grand Hotel) ~ PETER DARLING (Closer To Heaven)

JAVIER DE FRUTOS (Cabaret, Lyric) ~ DAN KNECHTGES (Xanadu)

ROB MARSHALL (Cabaret)

JOEY McKNEELY / JEROME ROBBINS (West Side Story, Sadler's Wells)

STEPHEN MEAR (Sweet Charity) ~ JERRY MITCHELL (Hairspray)
LYNNE PAGE (La Cage aux Folles)

ANN REINKING, CHET WALKER / BOB FOSSE (Fosse, Prince of Wales)

   SUSAN STROMAN (Contact) ~ SUSAN STROMAN (The Producers)

ANTHONY VAN LAAST (Mammna Mia!)