The 2025 West End Wilma Awards took place last night at London’s Leicester Square Theatre, celebrating the very best of UK theatre across fifteen categories, including new additions such as Best Swing, Best Edinburgh Fringe Festival Show, and Best Backstage Dresser.
Starlight Express emerged as the evening’s biggest winner, taking home five awards: Best Off West End Show, Rising Star (Georgia Pemberton), Best Dresser (Zephyr Aspen), Best Lighting (Howard Hudson), and Best Performer in an Off West End Show (Jeevan Braich).
Choreographer Arlene Philips said, “I first started working on Starlight Express in 1982 and it has been running somewhere in the world ever since including being in its 37th year in Bochum, Germany. Now we have it back in London and it is the best thing that could happen.”
Several winners used their acceptance speeches to highlight the need for more inclusive and representative theatre awards.
Geri Allen, winner of Best Understudy for Operation Mincemeat, said, “Thank you so much to West End Wilma for actually having these categories because understudies, covers, swings are so unsung. The only time anyone talks about us is when you’ve had to travel 150 miles across the country to ‘save’ a show but actually we are saving it every day.”
Zephyr Aspen, awarded Best Dresser for Starlight Express, added, “It’s nearly 2026 and we are only just starting to get categories like these. I think now is the time to really start putting pressure on people that do awards shows like these, to really diversify their categories. There are so many departments that go unsung and unrecognised and it’s really important because they are the life of the show. I urge you to start coming together to celebrate these unsung heroes.”
Joanne Clifton, currently starring in Fawlty Towers The Play, presented the newly renamed Robin Windsor Award for Best Performer in a Musical to Jamie Muscato for The Great Gatsby. She said, “As Robin’s close friend and dance partner I know that he would be so honoured that this award is to be given in his name. He loved theatre. He would go and see every show because he wanted to be inspired and he was. The theatre was his escapism and inspiration.”
The 10th anniversary of the West End Wilma Awards will be held on Sunday 1 November 2026 at Leicester Square Theatre.
More information can be found here.
2025 West End Wilma Awards Full List of Winners
- Best Off West End Show – Starlight Express
- Rising Star – Georgia Pemberton
- Best Dresser – Zephyr Aspen (Starlight Express)
- Best Lighting – Howard Hudson (Starlight Express)
- Best Performer in an Off West End Show – Jeevan Braich (Starlight Express)
- Best New West End Musical – The Great Gatsby
- Best New West End Play – The Comedy About Spies
- Best Touring Production – Kinky Boots
- Best Cabaret/Solo Performance – Samantha Barks (Live at the London Palladium)
- Best Edinburgh Fringe Festival Show 2025 – I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical
- Best Performer in a Touring Production – Carrie Hope Fletcher (Calamity Jane)
- Best Performer in a West End Show – Jamie Muscato (The Great Gatsby)
- Best West End Ensemble Performer – Grace Swaby Moore (Back To The Future)
- Best Understudy – Geri Allen (Operation Mincemeat)
- Best Swing – Fergie Fraser (Mean Girls)
