The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' newspaper. They are the West End's equivalent to Broadway's Drama Desk Awards.

Trophies

The trophies take the form of a modelled statuette, a figure representing

Drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, designed by Frank Dobson RA, a former Professor of Sculpture at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

Categories

Three of the awards are given in the names of former ''

'' notables: *Arts editor Sydney Edwards (who conceived the awards, and died suddenly in July 1979) for the Best Director category. *Editor Charles Wintour (who as deputy-editor in 1955, launched the awards after a nod from the proprietor, Lord Beaverbrook') for Most Promising Playwright. *Long-serving theatre critic Milton Shulman (for several years a key member of the judging panel) for the Outstanding Newcomer award. In 2009, the Special Award was given in the name of Evgeny Lebedev, executive director of the ''Evening Standard''. In 1980, noting the first use of the Special Award category, Shulman observed that "In 1968 the judges felt that Alan Bennett's work ''Forty Years On'' did not fit either the category of a Play or a Musical. But since they liked it so much they gave him the coveted Dobson statuette as a Special Award. In a quarter of a century, only in 1968 had no-one been designated as 'Promising' although it could conceivably be argued that Alan Bennett's Special Award was a reasonable substitute for this category." The Special Award process came to a climax in 2004 when, in the 50th anniversary year, the category was used to signal peaks of accomplishment by the National Theatre (an institution),

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

(a playwright) and Dame

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...

(a performer). The Patricia Rothermere Award, presented biennially from 1999 to 2005, was created to honour the memory of Patricia Harmsworth, Viscountess Rothermere, wife of Viscount Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust, which formerly owned the ''Evening Standard''. The two part award recognised those who had given outstanding support to young actors, while also providing a three-year scholarship award for a drama student. Commencing in 2009, the Best Actress award was renamed in tribute to Natasha Richardson, who died after a skiing accident in Quebec in March 2009.

Awards ceremonies

The 2007 Awards lunchtime ceremony took place at the Savoy Hotel in London on 27 November 2007. The judges' assessments of the winners are online. The 2008 winners were announced in a ceremony at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, Covent Garden, on 24 November 2008. The judges' assessments are online. The 2009 winners were announced in a ceremony, again at the Royal Opera House, on Monday, 23 November 2009. The judges' assessments are online. The 2010 winners were announced at a celebratory evening ceremony on Thursday 28 November 2010 in the newly refurbished Savoy Hotel. The 2011 winners were announced in a ceremony at the Savoy Hotel on 20 November 2011. The 2012 winners were announced in a ceremony again at the Savoy Hotel on 25 November 2012. The 2013 winners were announced in a ceremony again at the Savoy Hotel on 17 November 2013. The 2014 winners were announced in a ceremony at the London Palladium on 30 November 2014. The 2015 winners were announced in a ceremony at the Old Vic Theatre on 22 November 2015. The 2016 winners were announced in a ceremony again at the Old Vic Theatre on 13 November 2016. The 2017 winners were announced in a ceremony at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 3 December 2017. The 2018 winners were announced in a ceremony again at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 18 November 2018. The 2019 winners were announced in a ceremony at the London Coliseum on 24 November 2019. The 2022 winners were announced in a ceremony at The Ivy on 11 December 2022. The 2023 winners were announced in a ceremony at Claridge's Hotel on 19 November 2023.

Awards by year

List of existing articles for individual years:

Winners 1955–2022

Best Play

Best Director

Also known as The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director from 1979. Renamed the Milton Shulman Award for Best Director from 2014.

Best Actor

Best Actress

Also known as ''The Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress from 2009''

Best Musical

Renamed the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical in 2007

Best Musical Performance

Best Designer

Best Comedy

Most Controversial Play

* 1955 – ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

(Only award in this category)

Editor's Award (renamed 'for a Shooting Star' in 2010)

Most Promising Playwright

Also known as the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright

Outstanding Newcomer

Also known as the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer :''Note: Category ceased but is re-styled as the Emerging Talent Award''

Emerging Talent

Theatrical Achievement

*1998 – Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid of the

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...

(Only award in this category)

Lady Rothermere Drama Award

Two part award, originally as the Patricia Rothermere Award * 1992 - Fionuala Clarence, Scholarship award *1993 – Matthew Rhys, scholarship award *1997 –

, for outstanding services to the theatre **1997 – Mark Rice-Oxley, scholarship award *1999 – Simon Callow, for outstanding services to the theatre **1999 – Martin Rea, scholarship award *2001 –

Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English retired actress. She portrayed Sybil Fawlty, the bossy wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy ''Fawlty Towers'' and Queen Elizabeth ...

, for ... **2001 – Cassandre Joseph, scholarship award *2003 –

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

, for exceptional support for young actors **2003 – Elif Yesil, scholarship award *2005 – Penelope Keith, for ... **2005 – Hannah Croft, scholarship award

The Special Award (given as The Lebedev Special Award in 2009)

Theatre Icon Award

* 2013 –

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) was a British actress. Known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles, she had List of Maggie Smith performances, an extensive career on stage and screen for over seve ...

Moscow Art Theatre's Golden Seagull

* 2010 – Sir Peter Hall * 2011 – Sir Tom Stoppard * 2012 –

Beyond Theatre award

* 2011 –

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

and Javier de Frutos for '' The Most Incredible Thing'' * 2012 –

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on the films ''Shallow Grave (1994 film), Shallow Grave'' (1994), ''Trainspotting (film), Trainspotting'' (1996) and its sequel ''T2 Tra ...

and his teams for the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics * 2013 – BBC Proms 2013 * 2014 – '' Here Lies Love''

Award For Comedy

* 2013 – David Walliams for ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

Best Revival of the Year

* 2014 – ''

Skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

Sources

*''Celebration: 25 Years of British Theatre''. W. H. Allen Ltd, 1980. , for Awards 1955–1978 * Theatre Record and its annual Indexes, for Awards 1981 to date.

References

{{Navboxes , title = Categories of Evening Standard Theatre Awards , list = {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Designer {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical Performance {{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer London awards Awards established in 1955 British theatre awards 1955 establishments in the United Kingdom Theatre in London