Evening Standard Theatre Awards longlist announced

[fairygodmother]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 10:10am

http://bit.ly/25WUj6

What do we think?
I'm happy for ALNM and Spring Awakening, and think those young actors should be proud of their newcomer nominations. But where are Sister Act and Priscilla? Not one nomination between them! And do we think that the musical's list is a little, well, short for a longlist?

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 10:23am

Fairy Godmother, I too am stunned at that musical nomination list!
The two big London musicals to open in 2009 and NOTHING!

What's going on?

There are THREE revivals nominated there.

Maybe we should all post comments at the bottom of that Evening Standard piece and ask why!
There is no reason 'Sister Act' and 'Priscilla' cant still be added to that list.

Its also a list of shows that have mostly closed and if they win or not will not be seen by the public and therefore be forgotten about straight away.

[AnythingGoes2]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 10:56am

Suprised no mention of Priscilla or Sister Act.

Hope Hello, Dolly wins to fuel and dieing transfer hope.

[fairygodmother]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 11:04am

I've been reminded by many people that Wicked and Jersey Boys were snubbed by these awards too - if fact, only Hairspray has recently had any success from them. i know they like their 'highbrow' art - so do I! - but there's so little variety! And I totally agree about the lack of shows currently running there. I don't know anyone's who's raving or raved about The Mysteries or Been So Long, and anyone I know who saw Hello Dolly wasn't overly keen. So its not like they were widely adored tiny gems that have been and gone, more like token gestures on the list...
For originality's sake, I hope that Spring Awakening does well.

[Princeton2]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 11:05am

Lack of mention of Priscilla surprises me less than the lack of Sister Act which is an original score.

They really need to split the award into Best Revival and Best new Musical, its unfair to compare the two types of musicals

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 1:13pm

Tough choice here,

ALNM = One of the best songs written for stage 'A little Night Music', great story and acting.

Spring Awakening = Great book, simplistic staging, great imagination in the lighting.

Sunset Boulevard = Great Story, Music and Lyrics, simplistic set from what the original show had, great direction by and choreography by Craig Revel Horwood, that is why this show gets my vote.

A travesty that Sister Act did not get nominated, it would of been my winner.

[Weez]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 2:27pm

Can't say I'm overwhelmed by the longlist.

In Best Actress, how come Penny Downie's only nominated for Helen? She was dazzling in it, to be sure, but she absolutely SHONE in Hamlet so should've been nominated for both rather than just one. I'm surprised Gillian Anderson didn't get a nomination; I guess the critics were INCREDIBLY angry at the updating of A Doll's House! Rachel Weisz is closest to a shoo-in, but I'm cheering for Samantha Bond on the side. Pretty strong category, I guess.

There's some SERIOUS competition in the Best Actor category! I've seen eight of the nominees and will be seeing two more this weekend, and it's an amazing category. I currently like Mark Rylance or Ken Stott, but I love that Matthew Kelly's nomination includes my secret favourite production of the year (Troilus and Cressida), David Harewood was immense as well, and Waiting for Godot really opened my eyes to why Ian McKellen deserves to be a Sir.

I can't BELIEVE England People Very Nice is longlisted for Best Play. Whether you were offended or not, it was just plain terrible. Hope that drops off when the shortlist comes out! Enron is awesome, but I don't think the text would stand up so strongly without this particular production cased around it. I apparently haven't seen as many new plays this year as I should, but I'm cheering for Jerusalem.

Best Musical? What's going on there?!

Best Director notable for its distinct lack of Grandage. Perhaps he's been stretched a little too thin this year. Nice to see Rupert Goold on there; you know he's on form when you get to the interval of something he's directed and feel like you've been punched in the head. Although Marianne Elliott deserves mad props for taking a confusing and slightly horrible play and making it vastly entertaining.

With regards to Best Design, this is probably the only time you're ever going to hear me complimenting Ultz. Somehow, he pulled through and made Jerusalem visually AWESOME. Very realistic, very truthful, and absolutely spot-on for the production. Christopher Oram has been working bloody hard and turning in some damn fine work this season though. The Donmar are getting a little dissed this year, but the design (visual, lighting, and audio) has remained of a consistently high quality throughout the year, so go Oram!

My pick for Most Promising Playwright would absolutely be Katori Hall. Quite a nice-looking category all round, but she's my favourite.

And my pick for Best Newcomer is going to be Ruth Negga. She's genuinely more compelling than Helen Mirren! :P I wonder if Lenny Henry's looking at this list and feeling REALLY REALLY OLD?

Why are new productions and revivals lumped in together? And why no love for supporting performers? Why are supporting performers so generally disregarded when it comes to British theatre awards?!

Updated On: 11/2/09 at 02:27 PM

[DeNada]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 3:07pm

Okay, my picks, category by category...

Best Actor - I didn't see enough of these to comment unfortunately. I'd say Rylance is the shoo-in here, and Jerusalem will be fresh in voters minds following the West End run.

Best Actress - I'm with Samantha Bond on this one, she was marvellous in Arcadia. I can't get behind anyone being nominated for anything to do with Helen because I hate the play so much; not one of Euripides' finest hours, although I hear the production was great.

Best Play - it's got to be Enron or August, surely? I'm rooting for When The Rain Stops Falling as an underdog, which was fascinatingly mad.

Best Musical - I don't see the controversy myself; I think it's between SA and ALNM. Just because Been So Long and The Mysteries aren't typical musicals doesn't mean they're not good, and the Dolly revival was very well received critically. And yes, I've seen Sister Act, and yes, I enjoyed it, and no, it shouldn't be on this list. I reserve judgement on Priscilla; I've not seen it, although have yet to meet anyone in real life who liked it.

Best Director - NEEDS TO BE MARIANNE ELLIOTT. Just because Rupert Goold annoys me, and her All's Well hit all my German Expressionist buttons :p

All I can really comment on I feel.

The Evening Standard Awards have never paid much attention to musicals. I believe that they've never given the acting gongs to a musical star, and only the occasional directing gong (last nominee was Rob Ashford for Parade, and I think the last winner may have been Nick Hytner for Saigon - and even then that was jointly with a "proper" play). I wouldn't get too het up about it.

Quite honestly, what would you do with a Best New Musical award in the West End these days? For an award like this which is clearly not a popularity contest (Caroline or Change was great, sure, but not exactly a crowd puller) shows like Sister Act aren't going to stand a chance against the smaller stuff unless they're really head-and-shoulders above the rest like Billy Elliot is perceived to be.

[bob8rich]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 6:18pm

I have to agree that to leave Sister Act out of the list of nominees for Best Musical is rather ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is to lump new musicals in the same categorary as revivals.

If I were to cast a vote for the Best PRODUCTION of a musical, Sunset Boulevard would win hands down. It was simply stunning. Though I love ALNM, I thought Nunn's production was pretty ordinary, while Craig Revel Horwood almost re-invented SB and IMO it was even better than the original West End production.

But, voting for Best New Musical, IMO it's a no-brainer. SPRING AWAKENING was a groundbreaking, breathtaking, heartbreaking piece of musical theatre magic with a score to die for.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 8:42am

From that list its pretty obvious now it will be 'Spring Awakening's year.
Very true about these being stuffy about musicals, if look back over the years its always been this way.
Better luck with the Oliviers eh.

[Beergoggles]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 5:03am

I'm slightly gutted they didn't give a nod to Iwan Rheon for best newcomer... thought he was the best thing in SA.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 3:22pm

Agreed mixing revivals with new musicals is ridiculous.

Agreed Iwan Rheon should not have been overlooked.

Patina should have got a nod as well but Sister Act's book will let it down badly in any best new musical award.

Still, as a theatregoer but not a professional, I don't really pay much attention to these awards. Oliviers are important and WoS theatregoers choice a trailing second.