Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical truly is Non-Stop! Hamilton, following its record-breaking 13 Olivier Award nominations this year (yielding 7 wins), has garnered 12 nominations for the 2019 WhatsOnStage Awards, dominating a starry list of nominees.
Ahead of the 19th annual ceremony at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 3 March 2019, the shortlist of shows and stars in the running for the publicly-voted awards was revealed today. The final voting stage thus commences until 31 January.
And the nominations revealed that Hamilton will duke it out with Eugenius!, Heathers The Musical, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical and Six The Musical for Best New Musical, while its lead duo – Jamael Westman and Giles Terera – will compete for Best Actor in a Musical, alongside Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (from Tina), Jamie Muscato (Heathers) and Rob Houchen (Eugenius!).
The rap-based story of the forgotten Founding Father also received nominations in Best Actress in a Musical (Rachelle Ann Go); Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Cleve September and Jason Pennycooke); Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Christine Allado and Rachel John); and Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design and Best Lighting Design.
Also performing strongly across the musical categories was Marianne Elliott’s critically acclaimed re-imagination of Company (9 nominations), Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre‘s Little Shop Of Horrors (7 nominations), and Heathers and Six with 6 nods each.
In the straight play categories, the critically acclaimed two-part epic The Inheritance received 7 nominations, including Best New Play and Best Director (Stephen Daldry). Best New Play nominees also include Dust, Girls And Boys, The Jungle and Misty.
Kyle Soller, star of The Inheritance, will compete against Aidan Turner for Best Actor in a Play. Soller and Turner, who led The Lieutenant Of Inishmore (also a hit with 6 nominations), are joined by Arinzé Kene (Misty), Colin Morgan (Translations), and Mark Gatiss (The Madness Of George III).
Best Actress in a Play will be contested by Carey Mulligan (Boys And Girls), Charlie Murphy (Inishmore), Katherine Parkinson (Home, I’m Darling), Patsy Ferran (Summer And Smoke) and Sophie Okonedo (Antony And Cleopatra), while Best Actress in a Musical will see Rachelle Ann Go up against Adrienne Warren (Tina), Carrie Hope Fletcher (Heathers), Laura Baldwin (Eugenius!) and Rosalie Craig (Company).
And in the Best West End Show category, audiences will have to make the tough choice between nominees Bat Out Of Hell, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Kinky Boots, Les Misérables and Wicked.
WhatsOnStage’s Chief Operating Officer, Sita McIntosh, said today, “2018 has proved an incredible year for new writing – for both musicals and plays, providing some of the strongest competition we have seen in recent years across the nominations.”
A full list of nominations, with details on how to vote for the winners, can be found through the WhatsOnStage website.