White Light is the sponsor of the Best Lighting Designer award, which was presented to Natasha Katz for her work on the hit musical Sister Act at the London Palladium. Her fellow nominees in the category were Johanna Town for Speaking In Tongues, Mark Henderson for Enron, Mike Robertson for On The Waterfront and Neil Austin for Life Is A Dream and Madame de Sade.
In other categories, the awards were widely distributed. Best Set Designer was presented to Brian Thomson for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which also won Best New Musical, Best Choreographer for Ross Coleman, and Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for Oliver Thornton. Trevor Nunn was selected as Best Director for Inherit the Wind and A Little Night Music.
The Donmar Warehouse enjoyed a successful evening, their production of A Streetcar Named Desirewas awarded Best Play Revival with Rachel Weisz chosen as Best Actress in a Play for her role in the show and Jude Law taking Best Actor in a Play for his role in the Donmar's Hamlet. Patrick Stewart won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play for a different Hamlet, the RSC production which also won the award for Best Shakespearean Production.
Other awards went to Miriam Margoyles for her part in End Game, Patina Miller for her part in Sister Act, Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger for their roles in Oliver!, which also won Best Musical Revival, Diana Vickers as Newcomer of the Year in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and John Barrowman for La Cage aux Folles; Jerusalem was chosen as Best New Play, Calendar Girls as Best New Comedy, and The Pirates of Penzance for Best Off-West End production. Waiting for Godot was selected as the Theatre Event of the Year for its pairing of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.
"We were delighted to be able to support the Whatsonstage.com Awards once again, in the awards tenth anniversary year," comments White Light's managing director, Bryan Raven. "It has been a thrilling 12 months for new productions, and we've been delighted to work with all of the lighting designers, electricians, production managers and producers creating those shows to bring their work to life on the stage. We are looking forward to an equally exciting 2010 - and will be back supporting these awards again next year."
(Jim Evans)
