Whatsonstage Awards Winners for 2020

Published: 9 March 2020
Reporter: Sandra Giorgetti

Andrew Scott and Indira Varma in Present Laughter Credit: Manuel Harlan
Rachel Tucker in Come From Away Credit: Matthew Murphy
Life of Pi Credit: Johan Persson

The WhatsOnStage Award winners, decided by public vote, were announced this week.

Andrew Scott won Best Actor in a Play and Sophie Thompson won Best Supporting Actress in a Play both for Present Laughter.

Jamie Lloyd received two awards, the Best Direction Award for Evita and Best Play Revival for Betrayal.

Sheffield Theatres won Best New Play for Life of Pi adapted from Yann Martel's novel by Lolita Chakrabarti.

The Best New Musical Award was one of five to go to Come From Away, which also received Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Rachel Tucker, Best Choreography for Kelly Devine, Best Musical Direction for Ian Eisendrath, Alan Berry & Team, and Best Sound Design for Gareth Owen.

Juke-box musical &Juliet did one better with 6 awards (from fifteen nominations) taking home Best Actress in a Musical for Miriam-Teak Lee, Best Set Design for Soutra Gilmour, Best Costume Design for Paloma Young, Best Lighting Design for Howard Hudson, Best Video Design for Andrzej Goulding and Best Graphic Design for Dewynters.

The Best Actor in a Musical award went to Sam Tutty and Jack Loxton won Best Supporting Actor in a Musical both for Dear Evan Hansen, and Best Musical went to Six the Musical. Notably, Waitress, which had seven nominations, took home no awards.

Beyond the West End Falsettos took home the Off-West End Production award and The Color Purple the Best Regional Production award.

Results in full:

Best Actor In A Play

Andrew Scott, Present Laughter

Nominees: Matt Smith: Lungs; Wendell Pierce: Death of a Salesman; Laurie Kynaston: The Son; Tom Hiddleston: Betrayal

Best Actress In A Play

Claire Foy: Lungs

Nominees: Zawe Ashton: Betrayal; Hayley Atwell: Rosmersholm; Sharon D Clarke: Death of a Salesman; Juliet Stevenson: The Doctor

Best Supporting Actor In A Play

Hammed Animashaun: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nominees: Alexander Vlahos: Peter Pan; Charlie Cox: Betrayal; Hareet Deol: My Beautiful Laundrette; Giles Terera: Rosmersholm

Best Supporting Actress In A Play

Sophie Thompson: Present Laughter

Nominees: Ria Zmitrowicz: The Doctor; Isabella Pappas: Appropriate; Monica Dolan: All About Eve; Indira Varma: Present Laughter

Best Actor In A Musical

Sam Tutty: Dear Evan Hansen

Nominees: David Hunter: Waitress; Jac Yarrow: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Oliver Tompsett: &Juliet; Charlie Stemp: Mary Poppins

Best Actress In A Musical

Miriam-Teak Lee: &Juliet

Nominees: Lucie Jones: Waitress; Katharine McPhee: Waitress; Tracie Bennett: Mame; Zizi Strallen: Mary Poppins

Best Supporting Actor In A Musical

Jack Loxton: Dear Evan Hansen

Nominees: Joe Sugg: Waitress; Jordan Luke Gage: &Juliet; Oscar Conlon-Morrey: Only Fools and Horses; Jason Donovan: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Best Supporting Actress In A Musical

Rachel Tucker: Come From Away

Nominees: Laura Baldwin: Waitress; Marisha Wallace: Waitress; Cassidy Janson: &Juliet; Melanie La Barrie: &Juliet

Best New Play

Life of Pi

Nominees: The Doctor; The Son; My Beautiful Laundrette; Appropriate

Best Play Revival

Betrayal

Nominees: Death of a Salesman; Present Laughter; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge Theatre); Lungs

Best New Musical

Come From Away

Nominees: Waitress; & Juliet; Dear Evan Hansen; Only Fools and Horses

Best Musical Revival

Mary Poppins

Nominees: Evita; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Mame; 9 to 5 The Musical

Best Off-West End Production

Falsettos

Nominees: Fiver; The View UpStairs; High Fidelity; Preludes

Best Regional Production

The Color Purple

Nominees: Mame; Life of Pi; My Beautiful Laundrette; West Side Story (Royal Exchange Manchester)

Best Choreography

Kelly Devine: Come From Away

Nominees: Fabian Aloise: Evita; Matthew Bourne: Romeo & Juliet; Jennifer Weber: &Juliet; Nick Winston: Mame

Best Costume Design

Paloma Young: &Juliet

Lez Brotherston: Romeo & Juliet; Katrina Lindsay: Small Island; Rob Howell: Present Laughter; Philip Witcomb: Mame

Best Direction

Jamie Lloyd: Evita

Nominees: Robert Icke: The Doctor; Marianne Elliott & Miranda Cromwell: Death of a Salesman; Matthew Warchus: Lungs; Matthew Warchus: Present Laughter

Best Graphic Direction

&Juliet: Dewynters

Nominees: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: Muse Creative Communications; Equus: Feast Creative; Evita: Feast Creative; Rosmersholm: Bob King Creative

Best Lighting Design

Howard Hudson: &Juliet

Nominees: Jon Clark: Evita; Ben Cracknell: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Jessica Hung Han Yun: Equus; Tim Lutkin & Hugh Vanstone: Present Laughter

Best Musical Direction

Ian Eisendrath, Alan Berry & Team: Come From Away

Nominees: Kimberly Grigsby: The Light in the Piazza; Alex Parker: Mame; John Rigby: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Alan Williams: Evita

Best Set Design

Soutra Gilmour: &Juliet

Nominees: Soutra Gilmour: Evita; Rob Howell: Present Laughter; Robert Jones: The Light in the Piazza; Rae Smith: The Night of the Iguana

Best Sound Design

Gareth Owen: Come From Away

Nominees: Ben Harrison: Mame; Nick Lidster: Evita; Gareth Owen: &Juliet; Mick Potter: The Light in the Piazza

Best Video Design

Andrzej Goulding: &Juliet

Nominees: Jon Driscoll: Small Island; Will Duke: Grief is the Thing With Feathers; P J McEvoy: Falsettos; Ewan Jones Morris: A Very Expensive Poison

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