Mark Rylance and Rachel Weisz Top Winners at Evening Standard Awards

Tony Award winner Mark Rylance and Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz are among the top winners of London's Evening Standard Awards for excellence in theater. The complete list of winners for the 55th Annual event were announced at a ceremony at the Royal Opera House on November 23, following the release of the shortlist of nominees on November 9.

Rylance won Best Actor for his turn in the Royal Court's production of Jerusalem, while Weisz was honored for the Donmar Warehouse's A Streetcar Named Desire. Weisz's award, renamed this year in honor of the late Natash Richardson, was given her prize by Richardson's mother, actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Additional winners included playwright Jez Butterworth (Best Play: Jerusalem), director Rupert Goold (Enron), the Open Air Theatre (Best Musical: Hello, Dolly!), designer Mamoru Iriguchi (Mincemeat), playwright Alia Bano (Most Promising Playwright: Shades) and actor Lenny Agyei-Ampadu (Outstanding Newcomer: Othello). The Evening Standard's executive director, Evgeny Lebedev also presented a special award to sir Ian McKellen, already a two-time Evening Standard trophy toter, for his continuing and excellent contribitions to British Theater.

The judges for 2009 were Henry Hitchings of The Standard, Susannah Clapp of The Observer, Broadway.com contributor Matt Wolf of The International Herald Tribune, Georgina Brown of The Mail and Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph.

The complete list of nominees can be found here.