Sunset Boulevard Wins Big at the 24th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards

Last night (Sunday 11th February), The 24th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards took place at The London Palladium in the West End. The only major theatre awards nominated and voted for by the public, The WOS Awards are held each year to honour the biggest and best of theatre in the West End and around the UK.

The evening kicked off with a star-studded red carpet, which was hosted by Tik Tok's Abbie Budden. In attendance was a glitzy guestlist that included Nicole Scherzinger, James Norton & Aimee Lou Wood. All of whom, of course, were hoping for a win on the night. The awards ceremony itself, which was hosted this year by theatre stars Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet, Hadestown) and Bonnie Langford (Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, Doctor Who, Anything Goes), began at 7:00 p.m. at The Palladium.

The evening featured specactular performances from the casts of Disney's Newsies, La Cage aux Folles and Operation Mincemeat, plus a surprise performance by Ramin Karimloo of Til I Hear You Sing from Love Never Dies, an icons medley, as well as a tribute to legend of the stage, Chita Rivera, who sadly passed at the end of January.

Two out of the five Andrew Lloyd Webber productions nominated were recognised by the Awards. Last year's performance of Love Never Dies in Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane took home the award for Best Concert Event.

However, it was Sunset Boulevard that stole the show, winning in seven of the nine categories in which it was nominated, including Grace Hodgett Young for Best Professional Debut Performance, Nicole Scherzinger for Best Performer in a Musical and Jamie Lloyd for Best Direction. Lloyd's radical revival of the Lloyd Webber classic beat out stiff competition from the likes of SIX, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Guys and Dolls, with the further achievement of being the show to win the most awards on the night. The success of the Sunset's six-week run at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End was recently followed by the announcement of a Broadway transfer later this year.