Voting opens for the Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical

Now in their 63rd year, the annual awards celebrate outstanding achievement and performance in London theatre.

Listeners will be able to cast their vote by heading to bbc.co.uk/radio2 and will have until 11.59pm on Sunday 23 October to register their vote.

The winner of the award will be announced live from the ceremony at London’s Old Vic Theatre on November 13 (9-11pm) as part of a special programme being hosted by doyenne of theatre, Elaine Paige, and fellow Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce. They will be presenting from backstage bringing listeners exclusive access all areas news as well as speaking to the award winners and some of the stars gathered to celebrate.

The six musicals in the running are:

• Funny Girl at the Menier Chocolate Factory and The Savoy
  Set around the outbreak of World War One, and during the aftermath, Funny Girl is based on the life of real actress and comedienne Fanny Brice, played by Sheridan Smith. Following Brice’s rise to fame, the musical documents the tumultuous relationship she shared with Nick Arnstein, the well-known entrepreneur and gambler. Funny Girl features one of the most famous Broadway scores, with music by the prolific Jule Styne.
• Groundhog Day at the Old Vic
  Groundhog Day is the story of Phil Connors (Andy Karl), a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in the isolated small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, when he finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day again and again…and again. As each day plays out exactly the same as before Phil becomes increasingly despondent, but is there a lesson to be learnt through his experiences, will he ever unlock the secret and break the cycle?
• Guys and Dolls at The Savoy and The Phoenix
  Guys and Dolls is a 1950s musical fable with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. The story is of a gambler, Nathan Detroit and his night club singer fiancée, Miss Adelaide, whose patience is wearing thin after 14 years of waiting. Nathan meets a fellow gambler, Sky and bets him $1000 dollars that he cannot take a girl (a “doll”) of his choice out for dinner. Full of self-confidence, Sky agrees, only to find that the doll in question is the pious Sarah Brown.
• Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
  Celebrating 45 years since Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s seminal musical first hit the stage, Jesus Christ Superstar returned to London in a powerful new production directed by Timothy Sheader. With a legendary score including I Don’t Know How to Love Him, Gethsemane and Superstar, audiences experienced epic storytelling in the remarkable surroundings of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at the National Theatre’s Dorfman
  Funny, sad and raucously rude, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is adapted from Alan Warner’s novel about six Catholic schoolgirls on the cusp of change. Young, lost and out-of-control, they’re hit by love, lust, pregnancy and death over the course of a single day. The play, a co-production of the National Theatre of Scotland and Theatre Live, featured a diverse range of music from Electric Light Orchestra to Vaughan Williams and was directed by Vicky Featherstone.
• Sunset Boulevard at The Coliseum
  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film captures the haunting world of the Golden Age of Hollywood. With book and lyrics by the Oscar-winning partnership of Don Black and Christopher Hampton, and Glenn Close reprising her Tony-Award winning role as Norma Desmond, ENO's Sunset Boulevard, staged at the London Coliseum, was a compelling story of romance and obsession.

Elaine Paige says: “There have been so many wonderful shows during the past 12 months and the impressive list represents just a handful of fantastic productions. Each and every one deserves their place on the shortlist and the Radio 2 audience are going to have a tough task ahead of them coming to a decision. Good luck to everyone nominated.”

The shortlist was compiled by this year’s Advisory Judging Panel, which comprises Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye; London Evening Standard’s Chief Theatre Critic, Henry Hitchings; Guardian culture writer and broadcaster, Mark Lawson; What’s On Stage’s Sarah Crompton and Matt Wolf, London Theatre Critic of the International New York Times; alongside the London Evening Standard’s Editor, Sarah Sands, and BBC Radio 2 Head of Programmes, Lewis Carnie.

Lewis Carnie, Head of Programmes Radio 2, says: “The 2016 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards are a wonderful celebration of the thriving theatre scene in London. I’m delighted that Radio 2 are once again able to offer our audience the chance to have their say and vote for their favourite musical of the past 12 months.”

Notes to Editors

Elaine Paige on Sunday (1-3pm) on BBC Radio 2 celebrates the music, both past and present, from Broadway, Hollywood and West End productions, attracting a weekly audience of 2.01m (RAJAR Q2 2016). BBC Radio 2 is the UK’s most listened to radio station with a weekly audience of 15.3m (RAJAR Q2 2016).

AF2

Related Media Centre Links

• Radio 2 announces media partnership with Evening Standard Theatre Awards