Hiddleston was named Best Actor for playing the title role in Coriolanus, seen at the Donmar Warehouse, and Gillian Anderson won the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress for her performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, seen at the Young Vic.
The Scottsboro Boys, now playing at the Garrick Theatre, but originally also seen at the Young Vic, won the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical. The show also won this year's Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Musical as well, presented in January. Here Lies Love, also imported from Off-Broadway to receive its London premiere at the National's Dorfman Theatre, took a special "Beyond Theatre" Award, for pushing the boundaries of the musical.
Additional special awards were also presented to Tom Stoppard, receiving the Lebedev Award for greatest living playwright; Kate Bush, who received the Editor's Award for Before the Dawn, her concert return to live performance for what was cited as "a new high in music performance"; and the Broadway-bound production of Skylight, which was named Revival of the Year.
Amongst other established categories, Rona Munro's The James Plays took the NOOK Award for Best Play and Jeremy Herrin won the Milton Schulman Award for Best Director for his Broadway-bound productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, seen at the RSC's Swan Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon and at the West End's Aldwych Theatre.
Laura Jane Matthewson won the Emerging Talent in partnership with Burberry award for her performance in Dogfight at Southwark Playhouse, which marked her professional London stage debut, and Beth Steel won the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright for her play Wonderland, seen at Hampstead Theatre. The latter award this year came with a £35,000 cheque for the winner, and £2,500 each for the other two shortlisted writers, Barney Norris (for Visitors, seen at the Arcola and soon to be revived at the Bush Theatre) and Dan O'Brien (for The Body of an American seen at Northampton's Royal Theatre and London's Gate Theatre. Es Devlin won the Best Design in partnership with Heal's Award for her work on the Almeida's production of American Psycho.
