Whatsonstage.com

And finally, it the turn of We Will Rock You. Enter this fortnight's MasterCard competition, in celebration of this year's Olivier Awards, for a chance to gain "rock star" status with the cast of the long-running Queen musical at the West End's Dominion Theatre.

To enter, log onto the competition page here: http://wos.im/RockYou. The We Will Rock You prize draw takes place at 9:59am Monday 22 April 2013. The Oliviers prize draw  also takes place on 22 April, ahead of the 2013 Olivier Awards ceremony on Sunday 28 April.

Good luck!

And now's it the turn of Wicked. Enter this fortnight's MasterCard competition, in celebration of this year's Olivier Awards, for a chance to receive the "star treatment" at Wicked, currently led by Louise Dearman and Gina Beck as warring witches Elphaba and Glinda.

To enter, log onto the competition page here: http://wos.im/MCWicked. The Wicked prize draw takes place at 9:59am Monday 8 April 2013. The Oliviers prize draw takes place on 22 April, ahead of the 2013 Olivier Awards ceremony on Sunday 28 April.

Twitter followers, watch out too for this week's Wicked quiz @Whatsonstage ...

Hello Les Mis fans

Just in case you missed it, there's a fabulous competition that MasterCard, sponsor of the Olivier Awards, is running at the moment, which we’re also promoting at the top of Forum pages this week.

As part of the competition, you could win either a chance to sing onstage at a dress rehearsal OR a chance to attend – as a VIP, no less – this year’s Olivier Awards, at the Royal Opera House on Sunday 28 April.

To enter, log onto the competition page here http://wos.im/MCLesMis . If you’re a budding Jean Valjean or Eponine, be sure to enter this week. The Les Miserables prize draw takes place at 9:59am Monday 25 March 2013. The Oliviers prize draw takes place on 22 April.

And watch out on the Discussion Forum over the coming weeks for two more unmissable MasterCard show experience competitions, inspired by the Olivier Awards.

Kind regards,

Whatsonstage.com

P.S. On the subject of singing at a dress rehearsal of Les Miserables, which Les Mis song would you must like to have a go at on a West End stage? We took a straw poll in the Whatsonstage.com office and “Do You Hear the People Sing?” won by a hair.

Hello all

Apologies for not replying sooner. Our small team is still recovering from the Awards, to be honest, and somewhat depleted with folks on holiday, and trying to get back to business as usual.

In any case, yes, we’re reading this and I have tried to address your various points below:

Re: seating - We tried very hard to get all of the nominees into the stalls this year, which we have managed to do in every previous year. Unfortunately and unavoidably, we simply did not have enough tickets in the stalls to make this possible this year at the Palace (a new venue for us, which threw up all sorts of challenges).

Fyi, the nature of the Whatsonstage.com Awards is very different from other awards. Historically, we have always had the massive industry Launch Party in December to announce the shortlists and big up every single nominee, reading out the shortlists to loud roars, doing interviews with everyone attending etc etc. We continue to do this, of course, as we have every year for over a decade.

The Concert is the second event in the Awards season. We only added this to the Awards season six years ago and the idea behind it, and the continued emphasis, was to give access to the public to share in the Awards celebrations and to let them effectively congratulate and applaud their nominees and winners in person. That creates a great atmosphere but it does mean there is even more pressure on tickets, as we make tickets available to the public at all levels – indeed about 70% of the house is open to the public, and these tickets go on sale before we even know what and who has made the shortlists.  We think this focus on public access is very important to maintain.

We had the extra challenge this year of being at a new theatre, as I mentioned – and all sort of extra challenges – fewer seats in the stalls and a much higher RSVP rate from nominees than previous years. By the time we realised how many more tickets we needed in the stalls for nominees, the tickets on that level had all sold out. We recognise that, as the Awards profile grows, this may increasingly become an issue for us and we’ll need to find a solution – but what I never want is to have the stalls/top price seats exclusively for industry folks and the public in the gods. This is against the entire purpose and ethos of our audience-voted awards.

Re: shortlist reading - Again that has been a historic decision related to having a separate event specifically about the shortlists and about creating a format that is unlike other awards shows. However, this is something we will be reconsidering for next year. As the Awards have grown, and many nominees may make one event and not the other and, understandably, not appreciate the history or reasons behind each, it may be wiser to conform more to expectations of traditional Awards events.

Re: the tone of the presenters - The event does have a reputation that has been built on being fun, raucous and slightly irreverent (those who came during the two years James Corden co-hosted will know that this year was quite tame by comparison). All of the hosts banter is done in a well-meaning, tongue in cheek spirit, but it is not to everyone’s taste clearly. It is difficult to strike the right balance. And we will have a think about this again next year.

Re: being there vs watching online - In general, the feedback that we have received from those at the Palace, which was absolutely packed, has been overwhelmingly positive. People seem to realise that, with these one-night events, it is by necessity quite pressured and somewhat flying-by-the-seat of our pants (we only have access to the theatre on the day) and that makes for part of the fun. There are always going to be goofs and slip-ups, which seems to add to the fun. (And raises the stress levels for those of us involved!)

Some of the points raised, therefore, may be down to our limitations with the webcast rather than any change of quality with the production itself, which was very much in the vein and irreverent but well meaning, tongue in cheek spirit of previous concerts. With the webcast, we’d love to broadcast the performances, for instance, but do not have the rights to do so – which we do pre-warn viewers about. We started the webcast last year to try to give more people access to the Awards results as they happen, but if this is not working for our audience, we may reconsider and simply not do the webcast next year. It is an awful lot of work and expense, particularly if it’s not producing a satisfactory result for viewers.

Anyway, thank you again for sharing your thoughts with us. We do read them and we do take them seriously. And, a very serious offer, if any of you would like us to plan or execute next year’s Whatsonstage.com Awards, we would welcome your involvement.

Until then, all the best,

Terri Paddock
Whatsonstage.com

Hello,

Re: Best Takeover, yes, that's correct. The same dates apply. Though, there is a few days' grace with this one. A few people have asked about Ramin Karimloo, who took over in Les Mis on 29 November 2011. He will not have had time to make last year's shortlists, so will be eligible for this year's.

Hope that makes sense.

Kind regards,

Whatsonstage.com team