Dame Helen Mirren proved she was born to play royalty last night taking home the award for Best Actress at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Her portrayal of the Queen in Peter Morgan’s The Audience was her second award-winning stint as the monarch having previously collected the Oscar for Stephen Frear’s 2006 film THE QUEEN. She beat off competition from Billie Piper (The Effect) and Kirsten Scott Thomas (Old Times).
There were double celebrations for The National Theatre’s production of Othello as leading men Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear were joint winners of the Best Actor accolade. In the upset of the night the Best Musical award was handed to the Menier Chocolate Factory’s Merrily We Roll Along 0ver smash-hit audience favourite The Book of Mormon.
During the ceremony, hosted by Damien Lewis, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was awarded the Lebedev Special Award for his contribution to musical theatre, the Evening Standard Theatre Icon award was presented to Dame Maggie Smith and Kevin Spacey was also awarded for his contribution to British Theatre. Other winners included Lucy Kirkwood winning Best Play for Chimerica, Rosalie Craig for Best Musical Performance in Tori Amos’ The Light Princess and Richard Eyre picking up best director for Ghosts.
For the full list of winners head to Whats on Stage
