MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO leads 23rd Annual Whatsonstage Awards nominations

News

Dec 8

The nominations for the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards have been announced this morning, marking the opening of the final voting stage (until 10 January), with winners announced at the annual Awards ceremony on 12 February 2023 at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

WhatsOnStage's Sarah Coleman said: “Once again the public have done us proud, making this the most heavily nominated WhatsOnStage Awards in our history. It’s wonderful to see the breadth of nominees this year, with theatre around the country being represented across the major categories, making these awards truly representative of the theatre community as a whole. We look forward to joining the nominees in February next year to celebrate the brilliance, innovation and pure joy of the past year on stage.”

Leading the nominations this year is My Neighbour Totoro with nine nominations - Mei Mac for Best Performer in a Play, Best New Play, Best Direction for Phelim McDermott, Best Musical Direction/Supervision, Best Lighting Design, Best Set Design, Best Sound Design, Best Video Design and Best Graphic Design. The next best nominated straight play is Good with five nominations, including three acting nominations for David Tennant, Sharon Small and Elliot Levey.

The critically acclaimed Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, which transfers to the West End next year, leads the musical categories, with eight nominations – Best Supporting Performer in a Musical for Marisha Wallace, Best Musical Revival, Best Director for Daniel Fish, Best Musical Direction/Supervision, Best Casting Direction, Best Lighting Design, Best Sound Design and Best Video Design. Other top nominees in the musical categories were both Almeida Theatre productions, directed by the company’s Artistic Director Rupert Goold – Spring Awakening with six nominations, and Tammy Faye, the most nominated new musical, with five nominations.

In the Best Performer in a Play category, Doctor Who faces off with Villanelle as David Tennant is nominated for Good alongside Jodie Comer for Prima Facie. Jonathan Bailey for Cock, Carrie Hope Fletcher for The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mei Mac for My Neighbour Totoro, and Rafe Spall for To Kill a Mockingbird complete the category. The Best Supporting Performer in a Play category sees Tennant’s co-stars Sharon Small and Elliot Levey face competition from Jade Anouka for Cock, Gwyneth Keyworth for To Kill a Mockingbird, Natasha Magigi for The Clothes They Stood Up In, and Greg Tannahill for Good Luck, Studio.

The Best Performer in a Musical category sees co-stars Jordan Luke Gage and Frances Mayli McCann from Bonnie & Clyde the Musical, up against Katie Brayben’s powerhouse performance as Tammy Faye, Courtney Bowman for Legally Blonde, Divina De Campo for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Charlie Stemp for Crazy for You. Best Supporting Performer in a Musical sees Bonnie & Clyde co-star Natalie McQueen up against Jocasta Almgill and Paul French from Grease, Lauren Drew for Legally Blonde, John Owen-Jones for The Great British Bake Off Musical and Marisha Wallace for Oklahoma!.

Up against Tammy Faye for Best New Musical are Bonnie & Clyde, The Great British Bake Off Musical, Identical, The Band's Visit, and The Osmonds: A New Musical; whilst Best Musical Revival sees Oklahoma! and Spring Awakening up against Billy Elliot, Grease, Legally Blonde and My Fair Lady.

The heavily nominated My Neighbour Totoro will face A Different Stage, Best of Enemies, Eureka Day, Prima Facie and To Kill a Mockingbird in the battle for Best New Play; whilst in Best Play Revival, Good takes on Blues for an Alabama Sky, Cock, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Crucible, and The Seagull.

Best West End Show sees firm favourites pitted against each other for the prize - Back to the Future: The Musical, Hamilton, Les Misérables, SIX, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. This year also sees the return of the Best Takeover category, with nominations for Lauren Byrne for Matilda The Musical, Erin Caldwell for Heathers: The Musical, Lucie Jones for Wicked, Reuben Joseph for Hamilton, Ben Joyce for Back to the Future: The Musical, and Joel Harper-Jackson who rose to the occasion in Cock.

Competing with Oklahoma!’s Daniel Fish, Spring Awakening’s Rupert Goold and My Neighbour Totoro’s Phelim McDermott for Best Direction are Dominic Cooke for Good, Nikolai Foster for Billy Elliot, and Indhu Rubasingham for The Father and the Assassin. Best Professional Debut sees nominations for Tomisin Ajani for The Play That Goes Wrong, Joe Locke for The Trials, Oliver Nicholas for Back to the Future: The Musical, Aharon Rayner for The Great British Bake Off Musical, Nadine Shah for A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Djavan van de Fliert for Frozen the Musical.

In the Best Off-West End Production category, the nominations are Anyone Can Whistle, But I'm A Cheerleader: The Musical, DIVA: Live from Hell!, Millennials, RIDE – A New Musical, and Ruckus; with Best Regional Production featuring Billy Elliot, Crazy for You, The Great British Bake Off Musical, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, The Book Thief, and The Osmonds.

For the first time this year, the award feature a Best Concert Event catering to a new and welcome addition to the theatrical calendar with nominations for Chess, Jeremy Jordan, SIX in Concert at Hampton Court Palace, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, The Witches of Eastwick and Treason.

You can vote for your winners here.