Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Spacey, Alan Rickman and last year’s Laurence Olivier Award winner Chiwetel Ejiofor are among the names on the long list for the 2008 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, which was revealed today.
The list, unveiled prior to this Friday’s shortlist announcement, features particularly strong showings for the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and Almeida Theatre, which all received multiple mentions.
In addition to Branagh, Ejiofor and Spacey, David Calder, Adam Godley, Will Keen, Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Slinger receive recognition in the category of Best Actor. Their female counterparts include Lesley Manville, Helen McCrory, Phoebe Nicholls, Lesley Sharp, Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton.
Three National Theatre productions – The Pitmen Painters, Never So Good and Her Naked Skin – are recognised in the Best Play category, alongside Black Watch, Days Of Significance and Now Or Later.
Among the directors, both Michael Grandage and Rupert Goold are named for their work on three different productions, Goold for Six Characters In Search Of An Author, No Man’s Land and The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot, and Grandage for Othello, The Chalk Garden and Ivanov.
This collection of the cream of London’s theatre over the last year is chosen by a select committee of critics including Nicholas de Jongh, Benedict Nightingale, Susannah Clapp, Georgina Brown and Charles Spencer, chaired by Evening Standard Editor Veronica Wadley.
With the recent announcement of the TMA Awards and the unveiling of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards long list, the 2008/9 British theatre awards season starts to get into full swing. The Evening Standard winners will be announced in a ceremony hosted by Richard Wilson on 24 November, while the Critics’ Circle and Theatregoers’ Choice Awards will be announced in the new year, followed by the traditional star-studded peak of the awards season, the Laurence Olivier Awards.
Full Long List
Best Actress
Lesley Manville (Her Naked Skin – National Theatre Olivier)
Helen McCrory (Rosmersholm – Almeida Theatre)
Phoebe Nicholls (Waste – Almeida Theatre)
Lesley Sharp (Harper Regan – National Theatre Cottesloe)
Margaret Tyzack (The Chalk Garden – Donmar Warehouse)
Penelope Wilton (The Chalk Garden – Donmar Warehouse)
Best Actor
Kenneth Branagh (Ivanov – Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
David Calder (King Lear – Shakespeare’s Globe)
Adam Godley (Rain Man – Apollo Theatre)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Othello – Donmar Warehouse)
Will Keen (Waste – Almeida Theatre)
Simon Russell Beale (Much Ado About Nothing – National Theatre Olivier)
Jonathan Slinger (Richard II/Richard III – Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Kevin Spacey (Speed-The-Plow – Old Vic)
Best Play
Black Watch by Gregory Burke (National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican Theatre)
Days Of Significance by Roy Williams (Royal Shakespeare Company at the Tricycle Theatre)
Her Naked Skin by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (National Theatre Olivier)
Never So Good by Howard Brenton (National Theatre Lyttelton)
Now Or Later by Christopher Shinn (Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs)
The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall (Live Theatre and National Theatre co-production)
Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
La Cage Aux Folles (Menier Chocolate Factory and Playhouse Theatre)
Eurobeat (Novello Theatre)
Jersey Boys (Prince Edward Theatre)
Marguerite (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Street Scene (The Opera Group, Young Vic and Watford Palace Theatre co-production)
Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director
Lucy Bailey (Timon Of Athens – Shakespeare’s Globe)
Michael Boyd (The History Cycle – Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Rupert Goold (Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Gielgud Theatre)/No Man’s Land (Duke of York’s Theatre)/The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Almeida Theatre)
Michael Grandage – Othello (Donmar Warehouse)/The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)/Ivanov (Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
Katie Mitchell (The Trojan Women – National Theatre Lyttelton)
Emma Rice (Brief Encounter – Kneehigh at the Cinema Haymarket)
Alan Rickman (Creditors – Donmar Warehouse)
John Tiffany (Black Watch – National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican Theatre)
Best Design
Miriam Buether (In The Red And Brown Water – Young Vic)
Laura Hopkins (Black Watch – National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican Theatre)
Rob Howell (The Norman Conquests – Old Vic)
Neil Murray (Brief Encounter – Kneehigh at the Cinema Haymarket)
Melly Still (The Revenger’s Tragedy – National Theatre Olivier)
Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer
Michelle Dockery (Pygmalion – Old Vic)
Luke Evans (Small Change – Donmar Warehouse)
Felicity Jones (The Chalk Garden – Donmar Warehouse)
Joseph Mawle (The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot – Almeida Theatre)
Lex Shrapnel (Henry IV Part I – Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Ella Smith (Fat Pig – Trafalgar Studio 1 and the Comedy Theatre)