Oklahoma!, My Neighbour Totoro Lead 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards Nominations
© Marc Brenner / Manuel Harlan
Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away with Murder) and Leah Harvey (Foundation), both currently starring in the West End revival of As You Like It at London's @sohoplace, announced the 2023 nominees in 24 categories.
The Royal Shakespeare Company's world premiere production of My Neighbour Totoro leads the pack with a total of nine nominations, closely followed by the Broadway transfer of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! with eight nods, the most for any musical.
Other productions welcoming multiple nominations today include two Almeida Theatre hits – the acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening and the world premiere of Tammy Faye – with six and five nods, respectively, while the David Tennant-led revival of Good also managed to secure five nominations.
Battling it out for the coveted Best New Musical prize will be Bonnie and Clyde, The Great British Bake Off Musical, Identical, The Band's Visit, The Osmonds: A New Musical and Tammy Faye, in an even spread of shows from across the UK. In the Best Musical Revival category, Oklahoma! faces competition from the likes of Billy Elliot, Grease, Legally Blonde, Spring Awakening and the Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady.
Nominated for Best New Play, My Neighbour Totoro is up against Best of Enemies, A Different Stage, Eureka Day, Prima Facie (which is heading to New York next spring) and the Broadway transfer of To Kill a Mockingbird, while Good will have to face off against the National Theatre productions of Blues for an Alabama Sky and The Crucible, as well as Cock, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Seagull to be crowned Best Play Revival.
A stellar line-up of performers were named in the gender-neutral acting categories, with Tennant (Good), Jodie Comer (Prima Facie), Jonathan Bailey (Cock), Carrie Hope Fletcher (The Caucasian Chalk Circle), Mei Mac (My Neighbour Totoro) and Rafe Spall (To Kill a Mockingbird) honrered in the Best Performer in a Play category, and Bonnie and Clyde co-stars Jordan Luke Gage and Frances Mayli McCann, Courtney Bowman (Legally Blonde), Katie Brayben (Tammy Faye), Divina De Campo (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Charlie Stemp (Crazy for You) battling it out in the Best Performer in a Musical category.
In the supporting performer categories, Grease co-stars Jocasta Almgill and Paul French, Natalie McQueen (Bonnie & Clyde), Lauren Drew (Legally Blonde), John Owen-Jones (The Great British Bake Off Musical) and Marisha Wallace (Oklahoma!) are set to go head-to-head on the musicals side, while Good co-stars Sharon Small and Elliot Levey, Jade Anouka (Cock), Gwyneth Keyworth (To Kill a Mockingbird), Natasha Magigi (The Clothes They Stood Up In) and Greg Tannahill (Good Luck, Studio) will compete in the straight play category.
The 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards will welcome back the prize for Best Takeover Performance after a lengthy absence, and will also introduce two brand-new categories: Best Professional Debut Performance and Best Concert Event.
Votes can be cast for the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards here, with a deadline set for January 10, 2023.
If you're considering heading across the pond to London, the winners will be revealed in a special concert on February 12, 2023 at the Prince of Wales Theatre and you can purchase tickets for the event here.
