20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards Concert to be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 and feature new Audience Award for Best Musical
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage
The 20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 2 in 2020, award-winning performer and radio host Elaine Paige announced today, while also unveiling the BBC Radio 2 Listener Award for Best Musical.
You can vote for the BBC Radio 2 Listener Award for Best Musical here.
The awards will air live from 7pm to 10pm on Sunday 1 March, with Paige and Ken Bruce presenting from the Prince of Wales Theatre and providing first interviews with winners, nominees and special guests.
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage
The brand new BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical is open to any musical that will have run in the West End for longer than a year by the time voting closes on 27 January, with 13 nominees:
The Book of Mormon
Everybody's Talking About Jamie
Hamilton
Les Misérables
The Lion King
Mamma Mia!
Matilda the Musical
The Phantom of the Opera
School of Rock
Six
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Thriller Live!
Wicked
Unlike the 23 other categories in the WhatsOnStage Awards, the nominees for the BBC Radio 2 Listener Award for Best Musical can be voted on via the BBC Radio 2 website. The award replaces the former "Best West End Show" category.
You can see the nominees for the audience-voted 20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards here.
Lewis Carnie, Head of BBC Radio 2, commented: "We're thrilled to be the radio partner for the WhatsOnStage Awards for the first time and we look forward to being the home of the Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical."
