Go-Between on top at Theatre Awards UK

West Yorkshire Playhouse’s co-production of The Go-Between has won Best Musical Production at the Theatre Awards UK 2012. The show beat off competition from Sheffield Theatres’ production of Company and Chichester Festival Theatre’s Sweeney Todd.

Receiving its premiere at Leeds’ Playhouse in September 2011, The Go-Between was produced with Derby LIVE and Royal & Derngate Northampton. The production features book and lyrics by David Wood, and music and lyrics by Richard Taylor.

Director, Roger Haines, who collected the award alongside the creative team, said: “We were up against two brilliant Stephen Sondheim musicals and it is thrilling that this new British musical won; that feels like a very rare occurrence.” He also paid tribute to the “bravery of three regional theatres to produce this new work in the present financial climate”.

Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for other regional nominees. Tim Pigott-Smith lost out on the award for Best Performance in a Play for his role in the Playhouse’s King Lear. However, Leeds-based Opera North scooped the award for Achievement in Opera for Christopher Alden’s production of Norma.

Theatre Awards UK are the only nationwide awards to solely recognise creative achievements away from the West End. This year’s awards were presented at a lunchtime ceremony held at London’s Guildhall on 28 October 2012.