West End Wilma Awards – four wins for Heathers The Musical

Hannah Lowther is a popular winner at the West End Wilma Awards. Picture: Danny Kaan

Heathers The Musical was the big winner at the seventh annual West End Wilma Awards, winning a total of four awards including Best Off West End Show for its current run at The Other Palace.

As befits a fan favourite show Heathers producer Paul Taylor-Mills and his cast brought along Corn Nut, superfan Izzy to accept the Best Off West Show award.

Recognising everyone from understudies and ensemble performers to rising stars, the popular awards this year received over 130,000 votes from the theatre-going public.

The awards other multiple winners were Hannah Lowther who took home three awards (Rising Star, Best West End Ensemble Performer and Best Understudy) and Lucie Jones who won two for Best Cabaret/Solo Performance and Best Takeover In A Role for Elphaba in Wicked. Jones previously won the Best Takeover in 2019 for playing Jenna in Waitress.

For the first time this year theatre lovers were also able to nominate who they think should be on the shortlist for the popular awards presented by the mother/son blogging duo.

Guest presenters at the Leicester Square Theatre event included Olivia Moore, Ria Jones, Lizzie Bea, Robin Windsor, Joanne Clifton, Luke Bayer and Dianne Pilkington.

The ceremony also featured performances by Emily Benjamin (currently understudying the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret) who performed ‘Maybe This Time’, Joel Montague (Amos Hart in the recent tour of Chicago) who sang ‘Mr Cellophane’ and Lauren Byrne (understudy Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella) who sang ‘I Know I Have a Heart’.

Presented in association with Free@Last TV Ltd, the winners in each category were:

Best Touring Production: Waitress

Best Cabaret/Solo Performance: Lucie Jones Live at the Adelphi

Rising Star: Hannah Lowther

Best Takeover in A Role: Lucie Jones – Wicked

Best Understudy: Hannah Lowther – Heathers

Best West End Ensemble Performer: Hannah Lowther – Heathers

Best Performer in A West End Show: Jordan Luke Gage – Bonnie & Clyde

Best Performer in An Off West End Show: Alisa Davidson – Heathers

 Best Off-West End Show: Heathers – The Other Palace

Best West End Show: & Juliet – Shaftesbury Theatre

Ten per cent of ticket sales for the ceremony will be donated to Mousetrap Theatre Projects to help create more accessible theatre.

Angela Thomas