Evening Standard Award Nominees Announced

Whats On Stage is reporting that London's Evening Standard newspaper has published the list of nominees for the 2008 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, the first awards of the UK season.

The awards will take place at a ceremony hosted by Richard Wilson on November 24th, 2008. The complete list of nominees will be published in Evening Standard on Friday November 7th, 2008.

The Evening Standard Awards are determined by a panel of critics that include Mail on Sunday's  Georgina Brown, The London Observer's Susannah Clapp, The Times' Benedict Nightingale, Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer and The Evening Standard's Nicholas de Jongh.

BEST PLAY
Black Watch - by Gregory Burke (National Theatre of Scotland at Barbican)
Days Of Significance - by Roy Williams (RSC at the Tricycle)
Her Naked Skin - by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (National's Olivier)
Never So Good - by Howard Brenton (National's Lyttelton)
Now Or Later - by Christopher Shinn (Royal Court)
Pitmen Painters - by Lee Hall (Live Theatre and National Theatre co-production)

BEST ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh - Ivanov (Donmar West End at Wyndham's)
David Calder - King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe)
Adam Godley - Rain Man (Apollo)
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Othello (Donmar Warehouse)
Will Keen - Waste (Almeida)
Simon Russell Beale - Much Ado About Nothing (National's Olivier)
Jonathan Slinger - Richard II and Richard III (RSC at the Roundhouse)
Kevin Spacey - Speed-the-Plow (Old Vic)

BEST ACTRESS
Lesley Manville - Her Naked Skin (National's Olivier)
Helen McCrory - Rosmersholm (Almeida)
Phoebe Nicholls - Waste (Almeida)
Lesley Sharp - Harper Regan (National's Cottesloe)
Margaret Tyzack - The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)
Penelope Wilton - The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)

The NEd Sherrin AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL
La Cage Aux Folles - Menier Chocolate Factory and Playhouse
Eurobeat - Novello
Jersey Boys - Prince Edward
Marguerite - Theatre Royal Haymarket
Street Scene - The Opera Group, Young Vic and Watford Palace Theatre co-production

THE SYDNEY EDWARDS AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Lucy Bailey - Timon of Athens (Shakespeare's Globe)
Michael Boyd - The History Cycle (Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Rupert Goold - Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Gielgud)/No Man's Land (Duke of York's)/The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Almeida)
Michael Grandage - Othello/The Chalk Garden/Ivanov (Donmar West End at Wyndham's and Donmar Warehouse)
Katie Mitchell - The Trojan Women (National's Lyttelton)
Emma Rice - Brief Encounter (Kneehigh at Cinema Haymarket Theatre)
Alan Rickman - Creditors (Donmar Warehouse)
John Tiffany - Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland at Barbican)

BEST DESIGN
Miriam Buether - In The Red And Brown Water (Young Vic)
Laura Hopkins - Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican)
Rob Howell - The Norman Conquests (Old Vic)
Neil Murray - Brief Encounter (Kneehigh at Cinema Haymarket Theatre)
Melly Still - The Revenger's Tragedy (National's Olivier)

THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER
Michelle Dockery - Pygmalion (Old Vic)
Luke Evans - Small Change (Donmar Warehouse)
FeliciTy Jones - The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)
Joseph Mawle - The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Almeida)
Lex Shrapnel - Henry IV Part I (Royal Shakespeare Company at The Roundhouse)
Ella Smith - Fat Pig (Trafalgar Studios and Comedy Theatre)

Photo of Alan Rickman by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.