James Haddrell speaks on Whatsonstage and the Offies theatre awards ceremonies

Last Sunday was a huge night for London theatre, with both the Whatsonstage awards taking place at the Prince of Wales theatre and the Offies, celebrating off-West End and fringe theatre, taking over Alexandra Palace for its biggest ceremony yet.

The importance of awards has always been debated. Are these events inward-looking, self-congratulatory moments of vanity, or do they play a more important role?

For me, this year in particular, with the industry still fighting its way back from the devastating impact of the pandemic, the answer is an entirely justified ‘both’.

At the Whatsonstage awards there were some big winners – Killing Eve star Jodie Comer taking one of two awards for Prima Facie, Legally Blonde’s Courtney

Bowman and Lauren Drew picking up both awards for performer and supporting performer in a musical, and My Neighbour Totoro winning five awards including Best Director for Phelim McDermott.

Over at the Offies, the most rewarding thing for me was the number of winners and nominees who had spent some part of their company’s or show’s development at Greenwich Theatre.

Smoking Apples picked up two awards for Kinder at the Little Angel, Zoo Co won for their show Perfect Show For Rachel at the Barbican, Lazarus Theatre picked up a costume design award for Doctor Faustus at Southwark Playhouse and Debs Newbold was nominated (and only just beaten by Maureen Lipman) for Lost In Blue.

There were some notable new developments at both ceremonies, with both introducing gender-neutral performance categories, Whatsonstage bringing in an award for casting directors, and the Offies adding an award for accessibility.

The wins and nominations will certainly provide producers with accolades to add to their current and future posters, hopefully driving more people to see their shows, and artists will be able to bolster their CVs with the recognition.

For me, however, in an industry in which it is so difficult to sustain a career, which is riddled with barriers to entry and to career growth, and which saw such a talent drain during the pandemic, these awards recognise the astonishing resilience and unapologetic creativity that can exist within theatre.

The determination of these artists to continue making work, particularly at the smaller scale celebrated by the Offies, is inspiring – and without it there would be no theatre culture in this country at all.

The award for Best West End Show at the Whatsonstage awards went to Six: The Musical which started life at a small venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017.

One of the big supporters at the Offies was Mischief Theatre, whose mega-hit The Play That Goes Wrong started out at the Old Red Lion pub theatre in Islington.

Celebrating artists at both ends of the theatrical scale, at all stages of their career development, is a celebration of theatre itself and reinforces just how significant a cultural world leader the UK really is.

 

Picture: Perfect Show For Rachel. Picture: Danny Khan