Derek Jacobi, Michael Sheen and Bertie Carvel are among the winners of the Theatre Awards UK, the annual awards of the Theatrical Management Association.
Veteran theatre star Jacobi won Best Performance in a Play for his portrayal of King Lear in Michael Grandage’s production at the Donmar Warehouse last year. The actor’s performance has already won him Best Shakespearean Performance at the 2011 Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.
Carvel picked up the award for Best Performance in a Musical for playing Miss Trunchbull in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Matilda The Musical, while the show also won Best Musical Production. The Roald Dahl adaptation premiered in Stratford-Upon-Avon last year and transfers this month to London’s Cambridge theatre, where Carvel reprises his role.
Michael Sheen, who returned to the London stage in Hamlet this month, jointly won Best Director along with Bill Mitchell for their community production of The Passion, which was staged by National Theatre Wales in various locations around Sheen’s hometown of Port Talbot over the 2011 Easter weekend.
Other winners at this afternoon’s ceremony, which honoured the best of regional theatre from all over the UK, included Claire Price, who won Best Supporting Performance for The Pride at Sheffield Theatres, and Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love, which took Best New Play.
Edward Hall’s theatre company Propeller won Best Touring Production for Richard III and The Comedy Of Errors, which were seen at Hampstead theatre earlier this year, while Shakespeare’s Globe won Best Presentation of Touring Theatre.
The awards, previously named the Theatre and Theatre Management Awards, were relaunched this year to jointly celebrate performance and management success at one event. Winners in the five management categories included the Lyric Hammersmith, which won Achievement in Marketing, and the Theatre Royal Stratford East, which was named Most Welcoming Theatre.
Former RSC and National Theatre Artistic Director Sir Peter Hall was given The Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.
Ventriloquist Paul Zerdin compered the ceremony at Banqueting House, London, which was hosted by TMA President Rachel Tackley.
CB
Full list of winners:
Best Performance in a Play
Derek Jacobi for KING LEAR: A Donmar Warehouse production at the Grand Opera House, Belfast and on tour
Best Supporting Performance
Claire Price for THE PRIDE: A Sheffield Theatres production at the Crucible, Sheffield
Best New Play
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE: a Theatre Royal, Plymouth and Paines Plough production at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth and on tour
Best Show for Children and Young People
WHITE: a Catherine Wheels production at the Theatre Royal, Bath
Best Musical Production
MATILDA THE MUSICAL directed by Matthew Warchus: an RSC production at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Best Touring Production
RICHARD III and THE COMEDY OF ERRORS directed by Edward Hall: both Propeller productions, in association with The Touring Partnership, on tour
Best Design
HAPPY DAYS designed by Lizzie Clachan, lighting design by Natasha Chivers: a Sheffield Theatres production at Sheffield Studio
Best Director
Michael Sheen and Bill Mitchell for THE PASSION: a National Theatre Wales/Wild Works co-production
Best Performance in a Musical
Bertie Carvel for MATILDA THE MUSICAL at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Outstanding Achievement in Dance
New Adventures for an outstanding revision of CINDERELLA
Outstanding Achievement in Opera
MUSIC THEATRE WALES for its production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek
The Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre
Sir Peter Hall
Most Welcoming Theatre
Theatre Royal Stratford East
Promotion of Cultural Diversity Award
Lyric theatre, Belfast
Achievement in Marketing Award
Lyric Hammersmith
Theatre Employee/Manager of the Year
Nick Jones (New Vic Theatre)
John Titcombe (Salisbury Playhouse)
Renee Stepham Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre
Shakespeare’s Globe