2009 London Evening Standard Awards Shortlist Announced

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, Tony winner Mark Rylance, Tony nominee Simon Russell Beale and Broadway newcomer Ken Stott (who will soon star in God of Carnage on the Great White Way) have all been shortlisted for 2009 Evening Standard Theatre Awards. The prestigious awards will be handed out on November 23 at the Royal Opera House.

The awards are chosen by a panel of theater critics from the UK's top publications. The complete list of contenders is as follows:

Best Actor
Simon Russell Beale, The Winter’s Tale
Mark Rylance, Jerusalem
Ken Stott, A View From the Bridge
Samuel West, Enron

The Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress
Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County
Penny Downie, Helen
Juliet Stevenson, Duet for One
Rachel Weisz, A Streetcar Named Desire

Best Play
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Enron by Lucy Prebble
Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth
Punk Rock by Simon Stephens

The Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
A Little Night Music
Been So Long
Hello, Dolly!
Spring Awakening

Best Director
Rupert Goold, Enron
Jeremy Herrin, Tusk Tusk
Ian Rickson, Jerusalem
Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County

Best Design
Jon Bausor, Kursk
Miriam Buether, Judgment Day
Mamoru Iriguchi, Mincemeat
Ultz, Jerusalem

The Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright
Alia Bano, Shades
Katori Hall, The Mountaintop
Alexi Kaye Campbell, The Pride and Apologia

The Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer
Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Been So Long
Lenny Henry, Othello
Bel Powley, Tusk Tusk
Tom Sturridge, Punk Rock

The judging panel for the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards consists of theater critics Henry Hitchings (London Evening Standard), Susannah Clapp (The Observer), Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune), Georgina Brown (Mail on Sunday) and Charles Spencer (The Daily Telegraph), with Sarah Sands, deputy editor of the London Evening Standard, chairing.