Last weekend's awards ceremony for the UK Theatre Awards 2019 was Sheffield Theatres' night.
Life Of Pi, which will transfer to London's West End next year, won Best New Play (by Yann Martel adapted by Lolita Chaktrabarti), Best Director for Max Webster, Best Performance in a Play for Hiran Abeysekera and Best Design for Nick Barnes, Finn Caldwell, Carolyn Downing, Andrzej Goulding, Tim Hatley and Tim Lutkin.
Sheffield Theatres also took home the award for Best Musical Production for new musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge. This Sheffield-set show has songs by Richard Hawley and was directed by Robert Hastie.
Rebecca Trehearn won Best Performance in a Musical for Sweet Charity at Nottingham Playhouse and Esh Alladi won Best Supporting Performance for Hobson’s Choice at Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Emma Rice received the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.
2019 saw five new award categories: Digital Innovation, Excellence in Touring, Excellence in Inclusivity, Excellence in Arts Education and Workforce Award.
The award winners in full are:
- Best New Play - Life Of Pi (adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti from the novel by Yann Martel)
- Best Musical Production - Standing At The Sky’s Edge directed by Robert Hastie
- Best Play Revival - Equus directed by Ned Bennett
- Best Show for Children and Young People - Billionaire Boy The Musical directed by Luke Sheppard
- Best Director - Max Webster for Life Of Pi
- Best Design - Nick Barnes, Finn Caldwell, Carolyn Downing, Andrzej Goulding, Tim Hatley and Tim Lutkin for Life Of Pi
- Best Performance in a Play - Hiran Abeysekera for Life Of Pi
- Best Performance in a Musical - Rebecca Trehearn for Sweet Charity
- Best Supporting Performance - Esh Alladi for Hobson’s Choice
- Achievement in Dance - Scottish Ballet for Helen Pickett’s dance-theatre adaptation of The Crucible
- Achievement in Opera - Buxton International Festival for Georgiana
- Digital Innovation - Northern Ballet
- Workforce Award - Northern Stage
- Excellence in Touring - Pilot Theatre
- Excellence in Inclusivity - Mercury Theatre
- Excellence in Arts Education - Derby Theatre
- UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre - Storyhouse, Chester