Two Broadway favorites took home big wins at London's 31st Annual Critics Circle Theatre Awards, held April 3 at London's Ham Yard Hotel.
Rebecca Frecknall’s new production of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret won her the award for Best Director. Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her performance as Sally Bowles, while Tom Scutt won Best Designer for his stage design. Buckley starred alongside original Emcee Eddie Redmayne, though Annie Lennox and Fra Free have succeeded them both, respectively, since.
READ: What Did London Critics Think of Cabaret, Starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley?
Cabaret did not take home The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical, however. That honor went to Rupert Goold's Spring Awakening. Stuart Thompson, who played Moritz, won The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer
Best of Enemies won The Michael Billington Award for Best New Play, Ben Daniels won Best Actor for The Normal Heart, and Cush Jumbo won The Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for Hamlet. Zadie Smith and Igor Memic were recognized as Most Promising Playwrights for The Wife of Willesden and Old Bridge, respectively. Samuel Creasy also won The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer for The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage.
Commendations for Exceptional Theatre-Making During Lockdown were also given out to National Theatre, Jermyn Street Theatre, Original Theatre Company, Old Vic, and Nica Burns. The category was created to honor those who kept theatre going during the pandemic which forced the organization to cancel a ceremony.
The Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards date back to 1989 when The Drama Section of The Critics’ Circle, founded in 1913, inaugurated the honors.
