Shortlists in 2011 WOS Awards Announced Today

Nominations for our 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards, the “theatregoers’ choice”, will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony held today (3 December 2010) at the West End’s Cafe de Paris. The shortlists will be live on the website from 2pm, and voting for the eventual winners will begin immediately.
The shortlists have been 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.

Today’s event is attended by scores of stars from the past year’s theatregoing, not least those joining us on stage for the event. Our guest presenters helping us announce the shortlists are: 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 are 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.

Advance booking for the Winners’ Concert has now opened for members of our Whatsonstage.com Theatre Club – click here for more info & to book! Public booking opens this afternoon…

The Awards would not be possible without the help, cooperation and generosity of Delfont Mackintosh and a record number of sponsors that have come on board this year.

Our corporate sponsors this year include some of the biggest commercial names in the West End. They are, in alphabetical order: AKA, Ambassador Theatre Group, Baby Grand at Freedom, Capital Breaks, Dewynters, EMG, Equity, Last Second Tickets, Leicester Square Theatre, Les Miserables, Nursing Standard, Oberon Books, Radisson Edwardian Hotels, Really Useful Group, See Tickets, Shakespeare4Kidz, Spotlight, Take One Media and Whitelight.

We also have a record number of individual sponsors this year. They are: Alison Cook, Andrew Bennett, Anna Wawrzyniak, Anne-Marie McEwan, Barry Burnett, Clare Groom, Dee Quemby, Derek Payne, Emma Shannon, Fiona Cartwight, Hilary A Williams, Mark Burton, Matthew Strachan and Sean Barnes.

We thank each and every one of them for their support. Please do take a moment to find out more about our sponsors by visiting the sponsors page on the awards microsite.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: