Theatre News

Miss Saigon wins record haul at 15th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards

Cameron Mackintosh’s West End revival picks up a total of nine awards; other winners include ”Coriolanus, Memphis” and ”Shakespeare in Love”

Miss Saigon's Rachelle Ann Go, Cameron Mackintosh, Laurence Connor, Jon Jon Briones, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Eva Noblezada with their trophies
Miss Saigon's Rachelle Ann Go, Cameron Mackintosh, Laurence Connor, Jon Jon Briones, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Eva Noblezada with their trophies
© Dan Wooller

Winners of the 15th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards were announced this evening at the Prince of Wales Theatre, hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Steve Furst. The awards, which are the only major theatre prizes to be voted for entirely by the audience, were dominated this year by Miss Saigon, which picked up a record haul of nine awards, including Best Musical Revival and Best West End Show.

Other winners included former Doctor Who co-stars David Tennant and Billie Piper, who won the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards for the RSC's Richard II and National Theatre's Great Britain respectively. Coriolanus at the Domar Warehouse claimed the most awards for a play, with three, while Memphis the Musical won Best New Musical and Shakespeare in Love Best New Play.

See the full list of winners

Elsewhere, Sheffield Theatres took Best Regional Production for a second year running, this year for Daniel Evans's production of Oliver!; and in the hotly contested Best Off-West End Production category Twickenham Theatre's Sweeney Todd triumphed – it was the only show at the venue which closed just days after the production completed its run.

Tom Hiddleston and David Tennant with their WhatsOnStage Awards
Tom Hiddleston and David Tennant with their WhatsOnStage Awards
© Dan Wooller

Vanessa Kirby collected Best Supporting Actress in a Play, for A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic, while Mark Gatiss got Best Supporting Actor in a Play for Coriolanus. And Kerry Ellis won her third WhatsOnStage Award, for Best Takeover in a Role, for Wicked at the Apollo Victoria.

But the big story of the night was Miss Saigon's dominance – the show, produced by Cameron Mackintosh at the Prince Edward Theatre, topped every category it was nominated in bar one.

Its individual winners included Eva Noblezada for Best Actress in a Musical, Rachelle Ann Go for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Jon Jon Briones for Best Actor in a Musical, Kwang-Ho Hong for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Laurence Connor for Best Direction, Bob Avian & Geoffrey Garratt for Best Choreography and Totie Driver & Matt Kinley for Best Set Design.

Mackintosh, who also produced the original production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1989, said: "I've always known that the public knows best so I am delighted that the new Miss Saigon has swept the board with a record breaking nine awards including Best Musical Revival and Best West End Show and I'm thrilled for all our other winners as well, especially the extraordinary achievement of our four leading Asian performers winning the top acting awards. The original production in 1989 bizarrely lost the Olivier Award for Best Musical to a rock and roll compilation show Return To The Forbidden Planet – so it’s nice to see the public having the last word."

Eva Noblezada and Rachelle Ann Go performed during the ceremony, joining a fantastic line-up that also included Memphis star Beverley Knight, Made in Dagenham's Sophie-Louise Dann and the casts of In The Heights, Sweeney Todd and Dogfight. Performers also included Anna Jane-Casey, Melanie La Barrie, Amy Lennox, Lewis Bradley, Rebekah Lowings, Caroline Sheen, Lauren Samuels, Sophia Ragavelas, Laura Tebbutt and dancers from Lane Theatre Arts.

The WhatsOnStage Awards Concert was directed and devised by Russell Labey, with choreography by Nick Winston, musical supervision by Alex Parker, lighting design by Derek Anderson and sound design by Simon Fox. It's produced by Stuart Piper and Jason Haigh-Ellery.

WhatsOnStage continued its support this year of The Big Issue Foundation as the returnee official charity of the Awards. It was announced during the concert that our new adopted charity will be The Kevin Spacey Foundation.

For more on the WhatsOnStage Awards visit awards.whatsonstage.com


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