The 20th annual WhatsOnStage Awards take place on 1 March at the Prince of Wales Theatre, hosted by Jodie Prenger and Tom Read Wilson, and for the first time this year will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 hosted by Elaine Paige and Ken Bruce. Additional award presenters will be announced shortly.
Each of the 5 nominated productions for Best New Musical will perform live at the event – Bit of a Sort from Only Fools and Horses, You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen, Can’t Stop the Feeling!/Roar from & Juliet, Welcome to the Rock from Come From Away, and She Used to be Mine from Waitress.
There will also be a performance of I’m Here by the cast of Curve Leicester and Birmingham Hippodrome’s production of The Color Purple, which is nominated in the Best Regional Production category, as well as two further numbers specially created for the evening. The event is co-produced by Paul Taylor-Mills.
Leading this year’s nominations is the new musical & Juliet – currently running at the Shaftesbury Theatre, with 13 nominations across acting and creative categories including nominations for leading actors Miriam-Teak Lee and Oliver Tompsett who play Juliet and Shakespeare respectively, supporting actor nominations for Jordan Luke Gage, Cassidy Janson and Melanie La Barrie, Best New Musical, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, Best Graphic Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Set Design, Best Sound Design and Best Video Design. In the musical categories, Evita follows with 8 nominations and Mame and Waitress with 7 nominations each, and Come from Away and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat both with 5 nominations.
In the straight play categories, Best New Play is a contest between The Doctor, The Son, My Beautiful Laundrette, Life of Pi and Appropriate; and Best Play Revival nominees are Betrayal, Death of a Salesman, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lungs and Present Laughter. The latter of these leads the play categories with 8 nominations; including Best Actor in a Play for Andrew Scott, Best Supporting Actress in a Play nominations for Sophie Thompson and Indira Varma and Best Direction for Matthew Warchus.
