Photos: Stars Roll up for Standard Awards at Savoy

Patrick Stewart’s Macbeth, Broadway blockbuster Hairspray and the National Theatre were amongst the big winners at the 53rd annual Evening Standard Awards, but plenty more stars turned out for the lunchtime awards ceremony, held at the Savoy Hotel and hosted by Richard Wilson (See Also Today’s News for winners’ results).

Amongst the big names spotted – including winners, nominees, presenters and other guests – were: Henry Goodman, Ben James-Ellis and Leanne Jones, Sheila Hancock, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Tom Stoppard, John Mortimer, Amanda Hale, Michael Ball, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Christian Slater, Olivia Williams, Rhashan Stone, Michael Frayn, Patrick Stewart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Laura Wade, Samuel West, Matt Smith, Anthony Andrews, Sophie Okonedo, Patrick Kielty, and last but not least, Frances Barber and Sir Ian McKellen, who open this week in Trevor Nunn’s Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Seagull and King Lear at the West End’s New London Theatre.

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

The first main prize-giving of the theatre awards season – ahead of the Critics’ Circle, the Laurence Olivier and Whatsonstage.com’s own Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, all of which are announced in the new year – the Evening Standard Awards are decided by a panel of critics from the Mail on Sunday (Georgina Brown), Observer (Susannah Clapp), Times (Benedict Nightingale) and Daily Telegraph (Charles Spencer) as well as the Standard itself (Nicholas de Jongh).

Today’s event precedes the launch party held at Café de Paris next Friday (7 December 2007) for the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, when all of the people and shows in awards contention this year will be announced. For more information about entertainment and expected attendees at the Whatsonstage.com Awards launch, click here.

CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE YOUR FAVOURITES IN THE WHATSONSTAGE.COM THEATREOGERS’ CHOICE AWARDS!