Oklahoma! wins Best Musical at the 32nd Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards

Picture: Marc Brenner

The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards went to Oklahoma!, an invigorating interpretation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic re-orchestrated and reimagined for the 21st century. The musical was honoured for its 2022 run at the Young Vic, but has recently transferred to London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.

The winners at this year Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards held at @sohoplace were more inclusive than ever as, in a historic first, two of the acting gongs were awarded to performers with disabilities.

The Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance went to Arthur Hughes, whose magnetic turn as the eponymous hero in Richard III marked the first time the Royal Shakespeare Company had cast a disabled actor to play the character in its history.

Lizzie Annis received the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her astonishing performance opposite Amy Adams in The Glass Menagerie as Laura, the painfully shy daughter of Adams’ troubled matriarch. Annis, who has cerebral palsy, was praised by critics for the subtlety and sensitivity she brought to the role.

In a shock twist, Jodie Comer – who has won every major acting prize this season for her heartrending performance in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie – was pipped to the post by Patsy Ferran, whose astonishing turn as Blanche DuBois in Rebecca Frecknall’s A Streetcar Named Desire netted her the award for Best Actress. Ferran, who stepped into the role only four days before the first performance, blew critics away with her compassionate performance and potent chemistry with co-stars Paul Mescal and Anjana Vasan.

The prize for Best Actor went to Hamilton alum Giles Terera, who delivered not one but two masterful performances this year in Othello at the National Theatre, and as Guy in Blues for an Alabama Sky. The director of the latter, Lynette Linton, won Best Director, her lyrical and light-footed staging of Pearl Cleage’s play, a riveting rendition of the Harlem renaissance’s dying days.

Peter Morgan’s Patriots won The Michael Billington Award for Best New Play, a crowning achievement atop what has been a triumphant return to stage for The Crown showrunner. Patriots – an incisive study of Russian dissidence via Putin’s friend-turned-foe, Boris Berezovsky – is the first new play penned by Morgan in almost a decade, and has been widely applauded by critics for its breakneck pace and political timeliness.

Tyrell Williams won the prize for Most Promising Playwright, his debut Red Pitch a deft exploration of football, friendship and gentrification. Williams, who was also honoured this year with the 53rd George Devine Award, was recognised by critics for his playful and poetic use of language, and his centring of experiences that have been historically underrepresented on stage.

Tom Pye was named Best Designer for his work on My Neighbour Totoro, his whimsical production design able to summon all the magic of the source material, and even deliver fresh delights. This continues the awards season success of the RSC’s adaption of the Ghibli animation classic, which won six Oliviers earlier this month.

The 2023 Empty Space Peter Brook Award went to the New Diorama. Originally founded by critic and producer Blanche Marvin MBE, who ran these awards from 1989-2017, the Empty Space Peter Brook Award has been newly revived by the Critics’ Circle to mark the passing last year of radical theatre director Peter Brook. It is the only UK theatre award named in Brook’s memory, with the approval of his estate, and recognises a theatre that best embodies Brook’s concept of “the empty space”.

In attendance at the ceremony were many of this year’s winners, among them Peter Morgan, Giles Terera and Patsy Ferran. They celebrated alongside awards presenters and guests including actors Paul Mescal, Gethin Anthony, Juliet Stevenson, Tracey-Ann Oberman, Joanna Vanderham, and leading directors such as Rufus Norris.

Attendees were also treated to a surprise preview of the latest work from singer-songwriter Joss Stone and Eurythmics star Dave Stewart. The two are collaborating on a new musical, The Time Traveller’s Wife, which will open at the Apollo Theatre in October 2023. Attendees enjoyed a performance of ‘This Time’, performed by actress Joanna Woodward, a song that articulates the adoration and frustration of her love of her now-husband Henry, as well as her famous line from the beloved novel: “It’s hard to be the one who stays behind.”