Over 80,000 nominations received in 2014 WhatsOnStage Awards

Our editorial team has now pored over the audience nominations to finalise the shortlists, which will be announced at the annual WhatsOnStage Awards Launch Party this Friday, 6 December 2013, in front of a star-studded audience of actors, directors, playwrights, designers and other professionals who have put on the hundreds of shows eligible over the past year’s theatre.

Onstage at the Launch Party to help us announce the shortlists are: former WhatsOnStage Award winners Nigel Harman and Natalie Casey, Equity president Malcolm Sinclair and, speaking on behalf of Official Charity, The Big Issue Foundation, Big Issue founder John Bird. There will also be performances by Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple, I Can’t Sing), Urinetown‘s Richard Fleeshman and Jenna Russell, and Broadway star Eden Espinosa – as well as a few more surprises!

Voting for the final winners goes live on awards.whatsonstage.com on Friday afternoon and continues until 31 January 2014. Winners are announced, and trophies presented, on Sunday 23 February 2014 at the WhatsOnStage Awards Ceremony and Concert at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre.

Terri Paddock, WhatsOnStage managing and editorial director, commented: “Every year, it’s a mammoth task to narrow each of the 27 Awards categories down to a shortlist – there’s just so much talent, and so many fans of their work, across Theatreland. In addition to the shortlists, we’ll be publishing next week the longlists of other audience favourites who attracted substantial theatregoer nominations.”

Official Charity of the WhatsOnStage Awards

Both the Launch Party and the Awards Ceremony and Concert – for which tickets are now on sale! – are held in aid of our adopted charity, The Big Issue Foundation, the organisation which helps The Big Issue magazine’s homeless vendors take their next steps off the street.

For the price of a pair of theatre tickets, you could buy a year’s worth of Big Issues or donate just £10 a month to the charity, to make a real difference in a homeless person’s life. To find out more, visit the Official Charity page on the Awards website. Or, to make a monthly or one-off donation now, visit www.bigissue.org.uk .

Get involved, get invited

The Launch Party is an industry-only, by-invitation event. However, a limited number of members of the public can attend by becoming Individual Supporters.
Private sponsorship packages – priced £550 VAT – include two invites to the Launch Party at Cafe de Paris as well as VIP tickets and post-show party passes to the Awards Ceremony and Concert at a major West End theatre next February. For more information and to purchase a Theatregoer Sponsorship by Thursday 4 December, click here.

THANKS TO ALL OUR SPONSORS: