Propeller, Jacobi & Matilda Win at Theatre Awards UK

In the acting categories, Derek Jacobi’s performance as King Lear at the Donmar Warehouse won Best Performance in a Play, while Claire Price scooped the award for Best Supporting Performance for The Pride at the Sheffield Crucible.

The musical awards were both picked up by the Royal Shakespeare Company for Matilda The Musical,
which won Best Musical Production and Best Performance in a Musical for
Bertie Carvel for his turn as headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

Other winners included Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love, which won Best New Play, and Michael Sheen and Bill Mitchell, who won Best Director for their epic production of The Passion for the newly formed National Theatre of Wales.

And veteran theatre director Peter Hall, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, was also honoured with the Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.

President of the Theatrical Management Association, Rachel Tackley, said: “The Theatre Awards UK reflect a year of outstanding creativity and production excellence. British theatre is a shining light in the continuing recessionary gloom – something we can all be proud of. Congratulations to all the winners and the huge theatre community who collaborated in creating our wonderful productions.” 

The Theatre Awards UK are the first of several major awards to be handed out in the coming months, including the Evening Standard Awards, Critics’ Circle, Oliviers and our own Whatsonstage.com Awards – nominations for which open this week (1 November 2011).

The full list of Theatre Awards UK 2011 winners: