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Producers, Boys & Summer Scoop Critics’ Awards

There’s one thing that critics and audiences can agree on at least - The Producers was the best new musical of last year. Today, it completed a hat trick of awards, winning the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical as well as the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best New Musical, adding to the Evening Standard award it scooped in November (See News, 13 Dec 2004).

Another joint winner between the critics and the public is Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, which scooped the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play and the Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best New Comedy.

The History Boys also won the Critics’ Circle Best Actor award for Richard Griffiths, who was pipped to the post in Whatsonstage.com’s popular vote by Hollywood’s Christian Slater for his acclaimed performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The other dual winner at the Critics’ Circle Awards was the West End transfer of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer. For Michael Grandage’s Sheffield revival, Christopher Oram won Best Designer and Victoria Hamilton was named Best Actress. In the popular vote, Hamilton lost out to her co-star Dame Diana Rigg.

Other Critics’ Circle winners – Festen’s Best Director Rufus Norris, The Night Season’s Most Promising Playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz and The Goat’s Most Promising Newcomer Eddie Redmayne – were also nominated in this year’s Whatsonstage.com Awards.

This is the 16th year of the Critics' Circle Drama Section's Theatre Awards. The Circle is a professional organisation established in 1913 for those making a living out of criticism. This year's Critics' Circle Awards are again presented in association with Theatregoer magazine.

Winners of the Critics Circle Awards are listed below. Check back later for more live reporting from today’s ceremony.

The full list of winners from this year's Critics' Circle Awards is as follows:

BEST NEW PLAY - The History Boys by Alan Bennett (NT Lyttelton)

BEST MUSICAL - The Producers by Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)

BEST ACTOR - Richard Griffiths for The History Boys (NT Lyttelton)

BEST ACTRESS - Victoria Hamilton for Suddenly Last Summer (Albery)

BEST SHAKESPEAREAN PERFORMANCE - Paul Rhys for Measure for Measure (NT Olivier)

BEST DIRECTOR - Rufus Norris for Festen (Almeida & Lyric)

BEST DESIGNER - Christopher Oram for Suddenly Last Summer (Albery)

MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT - Rebecca Lenkiewicz for The Night Season (NT Cottesloe)

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER - Eddie Redmayne for The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Almeida & Apollo)

- by Terri Paddock

To view the full list of winners and nominees from 2005 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Theatre Awards (covering the 2004 theatre year), click here.

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