Photos: 10th Off-West End Awards including Winsome Pinnock and winner Oti Mabuse
© Simon Annand
The annual Off-West End Awards were held at Battersea Arts Centre last night, with guests including Oti Mabuse, Winsome Pinnock and Ruby Wax.
Mabuse collected an award in Best Choreography/ Movement for her work on Ain't Misbehavin', while Pinnock gave the ceremony's closing speech and praised all creatives and theatremakers on International Women's Day. Wax's daughter Marina Bye won Best Supporting Female in a Play for her performance in The Lady from the Sea at the Coronet Theatre/ Print Room.
Equus proved the most successful show on the night, picking up three awards including Best Production and Best Director (Ned Bennett). Gemma Barnett collected Best Female Performance in a Play for her role in one-woman show A Hundred Words For Snow at Trafalgar Studios, while Cary Crankson walked away with Best Male Performance in a Play for Country Music at Omnibus Theatre. The Best New Play went to Ross Willis' Wolfie at Theatre503 – Willis is one of the WhatsOnStage theatre faces to watch out for this year.
In the musicals categories, Amour at the Charing Cross Theatre and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Union Theatre picked up two prizes each. The former walked away with Best New Musical, while the latter received the award with Best Musical Production. Best Male Performance in a Musical was shared between Bart Lambert and Jack Reitman, the co-leads in The Hope Theatre's Thrill Me, while Jeannette Bayardelle won Best Female Performance in a Musical for Shida at The Vaults.
There were three special awards also given out at the ceremony. Mehmet Ergen and Leyla Nazli collected a Special Achievement Award for their tenure at the Arcola Theatre, while the Bunker Theatre's Chris Sonnex collected the Special Award for Artistic Director and Tobi Kyeremateng accepted the Special Award for Producer.
