Winners announced for the #AlsoRecognised Awards 2017

 

Several shows in the running for this year’s Olivier Awards, announced next Sunday 9 April, are also recognised this week in the third-annual Also Recognised Awards – in some notably different categories. The full list of winners is announced today in this audience-voted, industry accolade set up by theatre commentators Mark Shenton and Terri Paddock to celebrate lesser-known but equally worthy talent in fields overlooked by other awards bodies.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, nominated for a record-breaking eleven Oliviers including Best New Play, wins in two further fields in the Also Recognised Awards: Theatre Event of the Year and, for its online activity, Best Twitter Engagement.

 

 

 

Groundhog Day, trying to convert eight Olivier Award nominations, bags an Also Recognised award for composer Tim Minchin for Best Original Music.

 

 
Another two-time Also Recognised winner is the musical revival Half a Sixpence, which wins both Best Show Trailer and London Newcomer of the Year for Charlie Stemp, who is Olivier nominated for Best Actor in a Musical.
 

 

Five-time Olivier nominee Dreamgirls wins the Also Recognised award for Best Musical Direction for Nick Finlow for his work on the show. At their inauguration in 2015, the Also Recognised became the first UK awards to include Best Musical Direction, launched with the backing of industry lobbyists, director Andrew Keates and musical director Mike Dixon.

 

 
Elsewhere in the 2017 Also Recognised Awards: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by outgoing Globe artistic director Emma Rice, is named Best Shakespearean Production; Sheffield Crucible’s vibrant artwork for new musical Flowers for Mrs Harris wins in another of marketing categories, Best Show Poster; Sophie Melville wins Best Solo Performance for her critically acclaimed turn in Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott for Sherman Cymru at the National Theatre; the cast of Thom Southerland’s revival of Titanic at Charing Cross Theatre win Best Ensemble Performance; and one-time Avenue Q co-stars Jon Robyns, Simon Lipkin and Giles Terera take the prize for Best Musical Cabaret for their charity fundraiser reunion at the Orange Tree Theatre (they also submit an amusing three-part video acceptance!)

 

Acceptance videos and winners’ ‘certificate selfies’ can be found on www.mytheatremates.com and full results are after the cut.

Best Ensemble Performance


• Belarus Free Theatre – Burning Doors at Soho Theatre & Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion at the Arcola Theatre
• Boy – Almeida Theatre
• Donmar’s Shakespeare Trilogy – Donmar at King’s Cross
• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour – National Theatre
• Steel Magnolias – Hope Theatre
• Titanic – Charing Cross Theatre WINNER

Best Musical Direction

• Jordan Li-Smith – Ragtime, Charing Cross Theatre
• Laura Bangay – Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre
• Michael Bradley – Grey Gardens, Southwark Playhouse
• Michael Reed – Sunset Boulevard, London Coliseum
• Nick Finlow – Dreamgirls, Savoy Theatre WINNER
• Tom Deering – Jesus Christ Superstar, Open Air Theatre

 

Best Original Music

• David Bowie – Lazarus, King’s Cross Theatre
• Dougal Irvine – The Buskers Opera, Park Theatre
• Richard Taylor – Flowers for Mrs Harris, Sheffield Crucible
• Scott Frankel – Grey Gardens, Southwark Playhouse
• Tim Minchin – Groundhog Day, Old Vic Theatre WINNER
• Tim Phillips & Marc Teitler – The Grinning Man, Bristol Old Vic

 

Best Shakespearean Production

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s Globe WINNER
• Donmar’s Shakespeare Trilogy – Donmar at King’s Cross
• Hamlet – RSC, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
• Henry V – Open Air Theatre
• King Lear – Old Vic Theatre
• Kings of War – Toneelgroep Amsterdam at the Barbican

Best Musical Cabaret

• Ann Hampton Callaway & Amanda McBroom – The Pheasantry
• Barb Jungr & John McDaniel, That’s Life – Brasserie Zedel
• Ceili O’Connor – The Understudy, Century Club
• Sally Ann Triplett – The Pheasantry
• Shoshana Bean – Pizza Express, St Martin’s Lane
 Simon Lipkin, Jon Robyns & Giles Terera – Orange Tree Theatre WINNER

Best Show Poster

• A Raisin in the Sun – Albany Theatre
• Flowers for Mrs Harris – Sheffield Crucible WINNER
• Hand to God – Vaudeville Theatre
• Parade – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
• The Maids – Trafalgar Studios
• They Drink It In the Congo – Almeida Theatre


Best Show Trailer

• Half a Sixpence – Chichester Festival & Noel Coward Theatre WINNER
• Hedda Gabler – National Theatre
• Nice Fish – Harold Pinter Theatre
• This House – Headlong, Garrick Theatre
• Trainspotting – King’s Head Theatre & The Vaults
• Unreachable – Royal Court Theatre

Best Solo Performance

 

• Cush Jumbo – White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Southbank Centre & Good Chance Theatre
• James Cartwright – Raz, Trafalgar Studios
• Luke Wright – What I Learned From Jonny Bevan, Soho Theatre
• Ruby Wax – Sane New World, Arts Theatre
• Sean Michael Verey – Tonight with Donny Stixx, The Bunker
• Sophie Melville – Iphigenia in Splott, National Theatre WINNER

Theatre Event of the Year

• Emma Rice’s departure announcement from Shakespeare’s Globe
• Shakespeare Live! at the RSC as part of Shakespeare 400th birthday celebrations
• The premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child WINNER
• Three-show day for the Donmar’s Shakespeare Trilogy
• Understudy Natasha J Barnes stepping in – triumphantly – for Sheridan Smith in Funny Girl
• Understudy Ria Jones stepping in – triumphantly – for Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard


 

Best Twitter Engagement

• @ChichesterFT – Chichester Festival Theatre
• @HPPlayLDN – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child WINNER
• @NationalTheatre – National Theatre
• @SchoolOfRockUK – School of Rock
• @TheRSC – Royal Shakespeare Company
• @WickedUK – Wicked

London Newcomer of the Year

• Anthony Boyle – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Palace Theatre
• Charlie Stemp – Half a Sixpence, Chichester Festival & Noel Coward Theatre WINNER
• Frankie Fox – Boy, Almeida Theatre
• Samuel Thomas – Floyd Collins, Wilton’s Music Hall
• Sarah Snook – The Master Builder, Old Vic Theatre
• Zoe Cooper (playwright) – Jess and Joe Forever, Orange Tree Theatre & tour

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