Jodie Comer, Patrick Vaill, James McAvoy & More Win Evening Standard Awards

The 2022 Evening Standard Theatre Awards celebrated the best of London theater on December 11. London productions staged between May 20, 2021 and October 13, 2022 were considered for this year's awards, which were held for the first time since 2019. Evening Standard proprietor Lord Lebedev hosted the evening with actress Sheridan Smith.

Killing Eve star Jodie Comer took home the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress for her West End debut in Suzie Miller's Prima Facie. Comer stars in the solo play, which follows a young barrister who must confont the lines of where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge. Comer will make her Broadway debut when the play transfers to Broadway's John Golden Theatre for a limited run beginning April 11, 2023. 

Stage and screen star James McAvoy was named Best Actor for leading Jamie Lloyd’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which earned the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Revival when it played at London's Playhouse Theatre. It recently had its U.S. premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music. 

Broadway alum Patrick Vaill received the award for Best Musical Performance for reprising his turn as Jud Fry in the West End premiere of Daniel Fish's Tony-winning Oklahoma! Vaill originated the role when the revival bowed on Broadway in 2019. The London production also won for Best Musical. 

James Graham's Best of Enemies, inspired by the 2015 documentary of the same name, won Best Play. The play is led by Zachary Quinto as Gore Vidal and David Harewood as William F. Buckley as it charts a series of televised debates that took place in August 1968 between the two long-time opponents who are credited for revolutionising political TV debates and current affairs broadcasting.

Lynette Linton took home Best Director for her celebrated production of Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre. Playwright Isobel McArthur won the Emerging Talent Award for Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of) and the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright went to Tyrell Williams for Red Pitch, a play about three friends who have dreams of football stardom. 

Tom Scott won the Best Design Award for his work transforming Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. Special prizes were awarded to Dame Vanessa Redgrave and Nica Burns, producer and co-owner of Nimax Theatres, which controls six West End theaters.