Dan Stevens to be presenter - Evening Standard Theatre awards: two Frankensteins go head to head

London Evening Standard

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent
7 Nov 2011

Double act: Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as his creation.

 

The two stars who took it in turns to play Frankenstein and his monster creation will go head to head at this year's Evening Standard Theatre awards.

Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch are both shortlisted for best actor after their double act in Danny Boyle's production of Mary Shelley's classic tale.

They are up against Bertie Carvel for his cross-dressing Miss Trunchbull in the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda and Charles Edwards for his Benedick in the Globe's Much Ado About Nothing.

This year's awards, which are being held on November 20 at the Savoy Hotel, in association with Vogue and sponsored by Hobbs and American Airlines, will be hosted by Australian diva Dame Edna Everage - aka Barry Humphries. Presenters will include Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens and Anna Chancellor, currently on stage in The Last Of The Duchess at the Hampstead Theatre.

Betrayal star Kristin Scott Thomas will have the chance to add a best actress theatre award to the four she has won at the Standard British Film Awards.

But she faces competition from stars of another two of the year's most talked-about productions - Sheridan Smith for the Terence Rattigan rarity Flare Path and Samantha Spiro for the revival of Arnold Wesker's East End drama Chicken Soup with Barley.

Playwright Richard Bean is shortlisted twice for best play with The Heretic and with One Man, Two Guvnors, his new version of an 18th-century work which has seen James Corden reduce audiences to tears of laughter. Nina Raine, for Tribes, and Gina Gionfriddo, for Becky Shaw, are the playwrights he has to beat.

A trickier rivalry comes in the outstanding newcomer category where husband and wife Kyle Soller and Phoebe Fox are up against each other - as well as Malachi Kirby and David Wilson Barnes.
A strong year for musicals sees Cameron Mackintosh recognised for sinking a small fortune into Betty Blue Eyes, even though it closed early. The others shortlisted are London Road, re-telling the Ipswich prostitute murders, and Matilda The Musical. The National Theatre has nine nods, just pipping the Royal Court's eight, including design and most promising playwright.
Full coverage of the winners will appear in the Standard on November 21.

Our awards shortlist

BEST ACTOR
Bertie Carvel
Matilda (RSC Stratford and Cambridge Theatre)
Benedict Cumberbatch
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Charles Edwards
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe)
Jonny Lee Miller
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Natasha Richardson award for Best Actress
Sheridan Smith
Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Samantha Spiro
Chicken Soup With Barley (Royal Court)
Kristin Scott Thomas
Betrayal (Comedy)
Best Play
The Heretic
Richard Bean (Royal Court )
One Man, Two Guvnors
Richard Bean (National's Lyttelton)
Becky Shaw
Gina Gionfriddo (Almeida)
Tribes
Nina Raine (Royal Court)
Ned Sherrin Award For Best Musical
Betty Blue Eyes
Novello
London Road
National's Cottesloe
Matilda the musical
RSC Stratford and Cambridge Theatre
Best Director
Rob Ashford
Anna Christie (Donmar)
Dominic Cooke
Chicken Soup With Barley (Royal Court)
Edward Hall
Richard III & The Comedy Of Errors (Propeller At Hampstead)
Mike Leigh
Grief (National's Cottesloe)

Best Design
Bunny Christie
Men Should Weep (National's Lyttelton)
Lizzie Clachan
Wastwater (Royal Court)
Adam Cork
Sound designer of Anna Christie and King Lear (Donmar)
Mark Tildesley
Frankenstein (National's Olivier)
Charles Wintour Award For Most Promising Playwright
E.V. Crowe
Kin (Royal Court)
Vivienne Franzmann
Mogadishu (Lyric Hammersmith)
Penelope Skinner
The Village Bike (Royal Court)
Milton Shulman Award For Outstanding Newcomer
Phoebe Fox
For her performances In As You Like It (Rose, Kingston) and The Acid Test (Royal Court) and There Is A War (National's Paintframe)
Malachi Kirby
For his performance In Mogadishu (Lyric Hammersmith)
Kyle Soller
For his performances In The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic), Government Inspector (Young Vic) and The Faith Machine (Royal Court)
David Wilson Barnes
For his performance In Becky Shaw (Almeida)
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