Photos: Stars Party at 11th Annual WOS Awards

Over 500 guests, nominees and presenters braved the snow on Friday (3 December 2010) to attend the star-studded launch of the 11th annual Whatsonstage.com Awards, the “theatregoers’ choice”, at the West End’s Cafe de Paris.

The Whatsonstage.com Awards are the only major UK theatre prize-giving event decided by the public, with shortlists across 26 different award categories drawn up based on nominations submitted by theatregoers over the past month. More than 7,000 people took part in the initial phase of the judging campaign this year, marking another new record in the 11 years of the Awards.

For the full list of 2011 nominations
& to vote, click here.

TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF THE 2011 WOS AWARDS LAUNCH PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE “NEXT >” LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.
PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

Friday’s event was attended by scores of stars from the past year’s theatregoing (see below), not least those joined us on stage for the event. Our guest presenters helping us announce the shortlists were: When We Are Married’s Maureen Lipman and Roy Hudd; Malcolm Sinclair, president of actors’ union Equity, one of this year’s sponsors; and, speaking on behalf of this year’s adopted charity The Theatrical Guild, Deathtrap and London Assurance star Simon Russell Beale.

There were also live musical performances by: Legally Blonde star – and previous two-time Whatsonstage.com Awards host – Sheridan Smith; Anna Francolini, giving one of London’s last tributes to Stephen Sondheim in his 80th birthday year; and Flashdance’s rock ‘n’ roll-loving divas Charlotte Harwood, Hannah Levane and Twinnielee Moore.

The 26 Awards categories include standards such as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best New Play and Best New Musical as well as less conventional fields like Best Ensemble Performance, Best Off-West End Production, Theatre Event of the Year and, introduced for last year’s tenth birthday of the Awards, Best West End Show, covering long-running productions.

Voting continues until the end of January. Results are announced and awards presented in front of a live audience of theatregoer voters at our Winners’ Concert on Sunday 20 February 2011 at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre.

Amongst the nominees and other artists from shows opened in 2010 who attended the launch party were: Maureen Lipman, Roy Hudd, Malcolm Sinclair, Simon Russell Beale, Richard Fleeshman, Sheridan Smith, Danielle Hope, Tamzin Outhwaite, Mark Umbers, Sierra Boggess, Ramin Karimloo, Carly Stenson, Summer Strallen, Alan Cox, Samuel Barnett, Nigel Lindsay, Anya Reiss, Norm Lewis, Tracie Bennett, Hannah Waddingham, Danny Dee, Tom Hiddleston, Harry Hadden-Paton, Pandora Clifford, David Dawson, Ryan Molloy, Frances Ruffelle, Jenny Jules, Stuart Piper, Rosemary Ashe, Javier de Frutos, Issy van Randwyck, Annabel Scholey, Tony Gardner, David Suchet, Rupert Goold, Leanne Jones, Meera Syal, Jodie Prenger, Ben Richards, Don Gallagher, Matt Willis, Roy Williams, Simon Burke, Alex Gaumond, Lucian Msamati, Anna Francolini, Nancy Carroll, Jo Stone-Fewings, Stephen Campbell Moore, Cora Bissett, Matthew Pidgeon, Morgan Large, Rachel Tucker, Sharon Small, Jonathan Munby, Robyn Addison, John Owen-Jones, Laura Wade, Jill Halfpenny, Bob Golding, Guy Masterson, Tim Withnall, Nina Raine, Adam James, Helena Blackman, Stephanie Street, Lucy May Barker, Charlotte Wakefield.

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