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Dateline: 1st December, 2005 The Theatregoers' Choice Awards 2006The second awards of the season followed hot on the heels of the announcement of the winners of Evening Standards. Again, the nominations were delivered in November and therefore some excellent recent openings have of necessity been ignored. The title is something of a misnomer, since these awards cover the year to 30th November, 2005 and have little or nothing to do with the year to come. These awards are also unusual in that the major celebration takes place to announce the nominations rather than the winners. The lucky recipients of awards will find out at the same time as announcements are made of the winners of the Critics' Circle Awards and no one should be surprised to find significant differences between the two lists. The Critics' Circle should come up with a consensus between those much-loved and often much pilloried writers about theatre. The Theatregoers' Choice Awards are exactly that, based on votes by members of the public either through the magazine or the Whatsonstage website. This means that the nominations list can have a tendency towards the conventional and the populist. Having said that, this year it suffers much in the way of theatrical riches. A glittery event at Planet Hollywood just off Piccadilly Circus attracted a number of well-known celebrities. These include Alan Rickman, Sheila Hancock, Sean Foley from the Right Size and Lesley Manville who is currently starring in Pillars of the Community at the National. After a brief rousing speech from the new president of the Society of London Theatre, Rosemary Squire, who told movingly about the impact of the London bombings on the theatre, the nominations soon flooded out. The editorial team from Theatregoer magazine and Whatsonstage, Terri Paddock and Mark Shenton, acted as mistress and master of ceremonies. In an effort to ensure that those who needed to could make matinees, they absolutely raced through the programme which was necessary since their announcing nominations in no fewer than 24 categories. In those categories, there are six nominations and on occasion it appears that it was difficult to come up with six worthy candidates. For example, everybody has tipped to Billy Elliot and Mary Poppins for Best New Musical and is hardly a surprise to see Guys and Dolls in the Best Musical Revival category. However, neither Acorn Antiques nor Scrooge have met with either critical or public acclaim and will be something of a surprise to see them nominated for either the Critics' Circle or Olivier's. Overall though almost all of the finest work of this twelve month period has made it on to the relevant shortlists. The mouth waters at the recollection of a theatrical year in which Clare Higgins, Kristin Scott Thomas and the two stars of Mary Stuart are up for Best Actress, and Brian Dennehy, Sir Derek Jacobi, Simon Russell Beale and Kevin Spacey for the male equivalents. Similarly, Coram Boy and Harvest were always going to make Best New Play while Best Play Revival could be a difficult choice between Death of a Salesman, Pillars of the Community, The Philanthropist not to mention the two Schillers, Don Carlos and Mary Stuart that one fears that Otherwise Engaged may be struggling in this company. The big day is 31st January and a full list of nominations follows. Philip Fisher Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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