In the award's technical categories, this year's nominations are:
Best Set Design:
A Streetcar Named Desire designed by Bunny Christie at the Lyttelton
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang designed by Anthony Ward at the London Palladium
A Play Without Words designed by Lez Brotherston at the Lyttelton
The Coast of Utopia designed by William Dudley at the Olivier
Best Costume Design:
Bombay Dreams, costumes designed by Mark Thompson at the Apollo Victoria
Taboo, costumes designed by Mike Nicholls at The Venue
The Coast of Utopia, costumes designed by William Dudley at the Olivier
Twelfth Night, costumes designed by Jenny Tiramani at Shakespeare's Glove
Best Lighting Design:
A Streetcar Named Desire, lighting by Paul Pyant, at the Lyttelton
Play Without Words, lighting by Paule Constable, at the Lyttelton
The Bacchai, lighting by Peter Mumford, at the Olivier
The Coast of Utopia, lighting by David Hersey, at the Olivier.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bombay Dreams and Taboo have also been nominated for Best New Musical along with Our House, the Madness musical playing at the Cambridge Theatre, while Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia was also nominated for Best New Play alongside Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train, The York Realist and Vincent in Brixton.
Particularly noticeable amongst the nominees are the huge success rate for the Royal National Theatre - with all of the nominated lighting designs having been created within the National complex - and the almost total absence of nominations for We Will Rock You, the Queen musical at the Dominion Theatre, for which only Sharon D Clarke has received a nomination in the Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical category. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Lyceum Theatre on February 14th. The full list of nominations can be found at the Society of London Theatre's website.
(Rob Halliday)
