Evening Standard Creates ‘Best Night Out’ Awards Category

The Evening Standard Awards have long been the inaugural prize-giving of the theatre awards season, followed by the Critics’ Circle Awards (19 January 2012), the Whatsonstage.com Awards (19 February 2012) and the Olivier Awards (15 April 2012).

According to the Evening Standard yesterday, “The winners are carefully selected by a panel of distinguished theatre critics, but critics and audience members don’t always agree on what constitutes a great evening’s entertainment. One person’s agenda-defining drama can easily become another’s long snooze. Which is why, for the first time, we are delighted to open up one of our awards to an online public vote.”

The full list of nominations for the Best Night Out Award is below – voting is via the Evening Standard website.

Nominations for our own Whatsonstage.com Awards, which are entirely decided by the public, open on 1 November 2011. The shortlists are announced at the Awards Launch Party held on 2 December 2011 at Café de Paris. Online voting then commences to decide the eventual winners, which will be announced on Sunday 19 February 2012 at the Awards Concert at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre, where trophies will be presented.

Shortlist for the Evening Standard’s Best Night Out Award

Batman Live
Chicago
Crazy for You
Jerusalem
La Soiree
Les Miserables
Office Party
One Man, Two Guvnors
The Pitmen Painters
The Railway Children
Shrek the Musical
Wicked

About the Whatsonstage.com Awards

All professional
productions – from West End to Fringe – opened in London between 1
December 2010 and 30 November 2011 are eligible for nomination in the
next Awards, which are held in partnership with this year’s adopted charity Stage One (for more info visit www.stageone.uk.com). Voting takes place online and is strictly monitored, with
only one vote accepted per person. Over 46,000 people voted in the last
Awards, which culminated with the star-studded Winners’ Concert at the
West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre on Sunday 14 February 2011, co-hosted
by Miranda Hart, Christopher Biggins and Sheridan Smith. For full
results and coverage from previous years, visit awards.whatsonstage.com.

For the 12th annual Awards, we are making a limited number of
sponsorship packages – normally reserved for corporate partners –
available to private theatregoers. These include tickets to the
invitation-only, industry-attended launch party at Café de Paris (not
normally open to the public) as well as VIP passes to the Winners’
Concert and exclusive after-party next February. For more information on Theatregoer Sponsorship, click here.