Revived at the Royal Opera House for the first time in over a century, Adriana Lecouvreur is a fictional account of the life of the 18th century actress. David McVicar was acclaimed for direction.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Opera
- Best New Opera Production
Image via Wikipedia
After the Dance
Terence Rattigan's subtle unmasking of the hedonistic 1920s was revived by the National Theatre as the Rattigan renaissance gathered pace. Its tale of society's elite offered a glimpse at decadence in the face of destruction.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Director
- Best Revival
- Best Lighting Design
- Best Costume Design
All My Sons
Howard Davies's powerful revival of Arthur Miller's poignant drama about forbidden love, devastating secrets and the corruption of greed starred David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker as bereft parents, haunted by events of the Second World War.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor
- Best Revival
Asphodel Meadows
Choreographer Liam Scott created this haunting, abstract ballet set to Francis Poulenc's Double Piano Concerto for his Royal Opera House main stage debut. At just 24-years-old, Scott won critical acclaim for the romantic piece.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Babel (Words)
A collaboration between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and artist Antony Gormley, Babel (Words) continued the choreographer's exploration of the links between ethnicity and identity and combined western contemporary dance with movement styles from around the world.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Dance
- Best New Dance Production
Beauty and the Beast
Katie Mitchell's inspired take on the classic story saw her multi-media approach mixed with the traditional as a tomboyish Beauty fell in love with a grotesque, stilted beast amidst some meddling from mischievous fairies.
Nominated for:
- Best Entertainment
La Bête
This comic tour de force about a dramatist, a street clown and a picky princess pitched David Hyde Pierce, Mark Rylance and Joanna Lumley against one another in a raucous clash of literary egos.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor
Birdsong
Director Trevor Nunn and playwright Rachel Wagstaff created a distilled version of Sebastian Faulks's epic 1993 novel, in which one man clings to memories of a past love as he suffers in the trenches during WWI.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Blasted
Part naturalistic drama, part surreal portrait of an apocalyptic world, Sarah Kane's seminal play Blasted was revived by Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Sean Holmes with a cast comprising Aidan Kelly, Danny Webb and Lydia Wilson.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre
OperaUpClose's inspired version of Puccini's classic tragedy transports the excess, love and passion to modern day Soho where a new generation of bohemians electrify the audience with their immersive performance that goes from stage to bar.
Nominated for:
- Best New Opera Production
Clybourne Park
Bruce Norris shines a light on racism and political correctness with this stunning satire. In 1959, a black couple moving into a neighbourhood causes disquiet; 50 years later the plight of the property is still raising hackles.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- MasterCard Best New Play
- Best Director
Deathtrap
Ira Levin's devious tale of murder, manipulation and suspense featured the comic talents of Simon Russell Beale as a down-on-his-luck writer who sees financial salvation in the talents of another. Director Matthew Warchus kept audiences in suspense.
Nominated for:
- Best Lighting Design
Design for Living
Lisa Dillon, Tom Burke and Andrew Scott wowed audiences at the Old Vic in Noël Coward's provocative and unconventional romantic comedy following a trio of friends living outside conventional morality.
Nominated for:
- XL Video Award for Best Set Design
- Best Costume Design
A Dog's Heart
Complicite's Artistic Director Simon McBurney made his operatic debut with Alexander Raskatov's surreal masterpiece about a stray dog that becomes human after a Frankenstein-like experiment, bringing the theatre company's distinctive style to opera.
Nominated for:
- Best New Opera Production
Earthquakes in London
Rupert Goold directed Mike Bartlett's rollercoaster of a play that took audiences from 1968 to 2525 and back again, looking at the dislocated lives of three sisters and their dysfunctional father.
Nominated for:
- XL Video Award for Best Set Design
Elegy for Young Lovers
The third collaboration between the Young Vic theatre and the ENO, Fiona Shaw directed WH Auden and Chester Kallman's eclectic opera about a poet who feeds on those around him for artistic inspiration.
Nominated for:
- Best New Opera Production
The Elixir of Love
Jonathan Miller's critically acclaimed production of Donizetti's classic romantic opera transported the story from 19th century rural Italy to small town 1950s America creating an innovative update to one of the most popular operas of all.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Opera
The Empire
DC Moore's war drama explored the politics of occupation, at home and abroad. Set in Afghanistan, the critically acclaimed production was directed by Mike Bradwell and transformed the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs into a dilapidated war zone.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre
End of the Rainbow
Peter Quilter's biographical play capturing the drama of Hollywood icon Judy Garland's final performances in London and her controversial life, featuring a host of classic Garland songs and a breathtaking performance by Tracie Bennett.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Sound Design
- MasterCard Best New Play
- Best Actress
Fela!
Bill T Jones's colourful, sexy and energetic biographical musical of Nigerian afrobeat musician and political activist Fela Kuti's life transformed the Olivier into Kuti's legendary club where Sahr Ngaujah wowed crowds with his captivating performance.
Nominated for:
- Best New Musical
- Best Actor in a Musical
- Best Theatre Choreographer
Ghost Stories
This spooky offering, which was first a hit with screaming audiences at the Lyric Hammersmith, continues to dish up theatrical scares aplenty to audiences at the Duke of York's theatre.
Nominated for:
- Best Sound Design
- Best Entertainment
Gnosis
Akram Khan's electrifying piece explored ideas of inner knowledge and clouded vision, taking the Mahabharata story of Queen Ghandari as inspiration. Gnosis featured live drumming from acclaimed percussionist Yoshie Sunahata and puppetry by Blind Summit Theatre.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Hamlet
A production years in the planning, National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner had been waiting for the right time to unleash Rory Kinnear as the troubled Danish prince.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Henry IV Part 1 & 2
Shakespeare's Globe treated fans of alfresco theatre to six hours of Shakespeare with this historical double bill telling of Prince Hal's transformation from juvenile rogue to regal king, with Roger Allam as the comic knight Falstaff.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor
An Ideal Husband
A study of human frailty amid moralistic Victorian society, Oscar Wilde's play was revived by Lindsay Posner in a stylish production with a uniformly strong cast, led by Alexander Hanson as a flawed government minister.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Into the Woods
Composer Stephen Sondheim's 1987 musical found its perfect home in the leafy surroundings of Regent's Park Open Air theatre, with its darkly comic fairytale characters going into the woods for real.
Nominated for:
- Best Musical Revival
- Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical
Ivan and the Dogs
A co-production between Soho theatre and ATC, Hattie Naylor's harrowing drama looked at a recession ridden Moscow through the eyes of a child, inspired by the true story of Ivan Mishukov.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre
King Lear
Derek Jacobi stepped into the role of one of Shakespeare's most tragic characters under the direction of the Donmar's distinguished Artistic Director Michael Grandage, who created a minimalist production filled with Jacobi's bleeding emotions.
Nominated for:
- Best Actor
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Director
- Best Revival
- Best Sound Design
Legally Blonde The Musical
London's pinkest musical, based on the hit 2001 Reese Witherspoon film, tells the story of homecoming queen Elle Woods, who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School and discovers there was more to her than she knew.
Nominated for:
- Best Theatre Choreographer
- Best New Musical
- Best Actress in a Musical
- Best Actor in a Musical
- Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical
The Little Dog Laughed
Douglas Carter Beane's New York-set tangled tale of a love triangle between a closeted movie star, a rent boy and the rent boy's girlfriend, with the addition of a deliciously acerbic agent.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress
- MasterCard Best New Play
London Assurance
Silly walks, even sillier disguises and a remote control rat featured in this joyous revival of Dion Boucicault's 1841 farce, starring Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in a comedy double act that brought the house down.
Nominated for:
- Best Costume Design
Love Never Dies
Andrew Lloyd Webber's much anticipated sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera reunites Christine and the Phantom 10 years later in his new Coney Island home. The musical features impressive special effects, soaring melodies and heartbreaking ballads.
Nominated for:
- Best Lighting Design
- XL Video Award for Best Set Design
- Best Costume Design
- Best New Musical
- Best Actress in a Musical
- Best Actor in a Musical
- Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical
Love Story
Howard Goodall and Stephen Clark's musical retells Erich Segal's iconic and heartbreaking story of a love affair between two very different people. Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, Emma Williams gives an emotive performance as the feisty lead.
Nominated for:
- Best New Musical
- Best Actress in a Musical
- Best Actor in a Musical
Mambo 3XXI
Blending traditional Cuban music and dance with street, trip hop and disco, Mambo 3XX1 mixed group dance with individual exploits, showing off the grace and strength of Danza Contemporanea De Cuba's dancers.
Nominated for:
- Best New Dance Production
The Master Builder
Director Travis Preston created a modern, sparse production of Ibsen's strange and chilling 1892 play about the power of the mind and the price of ambition. Stephen Dillane, Gemma Arterton and nominee Anastasia Hille led the cast.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella
Award-winning choreographer Matthew Bourne brought a touch of the Blitz spirit to his new adaptation of the classic fairytale ballet, with the title character meeting an RAF pilot instead of a prince.
Nominated for:
- Best New Dance Production
Les Parents Terribles
Staged as part of the Donmar Trafalgar season, young director Chris Rolls directed a captivating Frances Barber in Jean Cocteau's manic farce about an eccentric Paris family and their dysfunctional relationships.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre
Passion
Staged as part of the 80th birthday celebrations of Stephen Sondheim, the Donmar Warehouse presented an intimate, chamber production of the tale of the sickly Fosca and her obsessive love for a solider.
Nominated for:
- Best Musical Revival
- Best Actress in a Musical
- Best Actor in a Musical
Potted Panto
Seven pantomimes were crammed into eighty minutes in this Christmas comedy romp by the former CBBC presenters and masterminds behind Potted Potter and Potted Pirates Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner.
Nominated for:
- Best Entertainment
The Railway Children
This innovative adaptation of E Nesbit's popular novel pulled into the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo Station complete with its very own steam engine and the Gentleman's saloon carriage from the much-loved film.
Nominated for:
- Best Sound Design
- Best Entertainment
Sucker Punch
Roy William's electrifying play explored what is was to be young and black in the 1980s. Transforming the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs into a boxing ring, the drama featured stunning choreography by Leon Baugh.
Nominated for:
- Best Theatre Choreographer
- MasterCard Best New Play
Sweet Charity
The Menier Chocolate Factory produced another hit in this revival of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields's musical about a dance hall hostess who always gives her heart to the wrong man, but never gives up hope.
Nominated for:
- Best Musical Revival
- Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical
- Best Theatre Choreographer
Tannhäuser
Tim Albany directed the Royal Opera House's seductive production of Wagner's battle of the sensual and spiritual, revived at the venue after more than 20 years and starring a cast of illustrious opera greats.
Nominated for:
- Outstanding Achievement in Opera
Tribes
Nina Raine's affecting drama about a charmingly dysfunctional family dealing with the problems youngest son Billy faces as a result of being the only deaf member of their unconventional and noisy unit.
Nominated for:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- MasterCard Best New Play
When We Are Married
A true ensemble piece, this revival of JB Priestley's comedy about class, morals and the north-south divide benefitted from a hugely experienced cast and a director who is fast becoming a master of farce, Christopher Luscombe.
Nominated for:
- Best Revival
The White Guard
Director Howard Davies and adaptor Andrew Upton created this highly engaging production of Mikhail Bulgakov's story of a family living during the Ukrainian civil war. Conleth Hill and Anthony Calf led the cast.
Nominated for:
- XL Video Award for Best Set Design
- Best Lighting Design
- Best Director
