West End star Jodie Prenger and Celebs Go Dating’s Tom Read Wilson will return to host the 22nd annual WhatsOnStage Awards at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 27 February 2022.
The duo will be joined by star presenters Chris Bush, Graziano Di Prima, Omari Douglas, James Graham, David Harewood, Frances Mayli McCann, Stephanie McKeon, Drew McOnie, Daniel Monks, Tracy Ann Oberman, Johannes Radebe, Kitty Scott Claus, Ella VaDay, Miriam-Teak Lee and Eric Underwood.
Amy Hart and Oscar Conlon-Morrey will also be on hand to chat with the red-carpet arrivals from 6.30pm on WhatsOnStage’s Facebook page.
Co-produced by Paul Taylor-Mills and Sita McIntosh, the event will open with a performance of new composition ‘We’re Back in the Game’ (music by Alex Parker and Katie Lam) by Prenger, Read Wilson and an all-star ensemble.
Featured performances will also include:
- Isaac Gryn, Ryan Anderson, Alex Christian, Michael O’Reilly and Dale White’s version of ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’ from West Side Story
- Julian Ovenden and Gina Beck performing ‘Some Enchanted Evening/I’m In Love’ from South Pacific
- Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Rebecca Trehearn performing ‘I Know You’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella
- Olly Dobson, Cedric Neal and Courtney-Mae Briggs performing ‘The Power of Love’ from Back to the Future the Musical
- Samantha Barks performing ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen
- Aimie Atkinson performing ‘I Can’t Go Back’ from Pretty Woman: The Musical
- Liisi LaFontaine and Jamie Bogyo performing ‘Elephant Love Medley’ from Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The evening will conclude with A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim, featuring an all-star ensemble.
The lavish stage musical version of Frozen which made its delayed debut at the newly-renovated Theatre Royal Drury Lane last summer, leads this year’s nominations with 13 nominations in both acting and creative categories. Stars Samantha Barks, Stephanie McKeon, Oliver Ormson and Obioma Ugoala are all in the running for acting awards. Along with a nomination in the hotly contested Best New Musical category, the production’s director Michael Grandage, set and costume designer Christopher Oram and choreographer Rob Ashford are also among the nominees in the creative categories.
Other major musicals attracting numerous nominations include Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical with 10 nominations, and Back to the Future the Musical with nine nominations. Cabaret makes its mark with seven nominations, the same number as both Moulin Rouge! and Cinderella with South Pacific receiving a total of six nominations.
In the fiercely fought Best New Musical category, Frozen faces competition from Cinderella, Back to the Future the Musical, Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, Pretty Woman the Musical and Moulin Rouge!
Frozen’s Barks and McKeon face stiff competition in the Best Performer in a Female Identifying Role in a Musical from Cabaret’s Jessie Buckley, Aimie Atkinson for Pretty Woman, Beverley Knight for The Drifters Girl and previous WhatsOnStage Award winner Carrie Hope Fletcher for Cinderella.
The Best Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Musical category Back to the Future’s Roger Bart and Olly Dobson go head to head against Ivano Turco for Cinderella, Arinzé Kene for Get Up, Stand Up!, Eddie Redmayne for Cabaret and Julian Ovenden in South Pacific.
In the musical supporting categories, Frozen’s Ormson and Ugoala face Hugh Coles and Cedric Neal both from Back to the Future the Musical, Blake Patrick Anderson from Be More Chill and Robert Lindsay from Anything Goes while the Best Supporting Performer in a Female Identifying Role, pits Cinderella’s Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Rebecca Trehearn against Gabrielle Brooks for Get Up, Stand Up!, Joanna Ampil for South Pacific and Millie O’Connell for Rent.
In the Best Regional Production category musicals South Pacific, Rent, What’s New Pussycat?, West Side Story, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Bloody Elle compete for the prize.
Other categories with a genre presence include the Best Direction award which features a split between musical theatre with Frozen’s Michael Grandage nominated alongside Clint Dyer for Get Up, Stand Up! and Rebecca Frecknall for Cabaret, and plays with The Tragedy of Macbeth’s Yaël Farber, Katy Rudd for The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Jamie Lloyd for Cyrano de Bergerac completing the category.
The Best West End Show category will be a battle between five musicals – SIX The Musical, Wicked, Les Misérables, Come From Away and Hamilton – and one play – Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong.
The nominees for Best Off-West End Production are musicals The Last Five Years and Pippin and plays My Son’s a Queer (but What Can You Do?), Saving Britney, Old Bridge and Anything is Possible If You Think About It Hard Enough.
Angela Thomas
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