Starlight Express Wins Big at London's WhatsOnStage Awards

The winners of the 25th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards were crowned at a ceremony last night at The London Palladium.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed revival of Starlight Express, which opened at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre last summer, scooped an impressive total of seven awards, becoming the big winner of the night. Coincidentally, it equals the tally of another Lloyd Webber revival as Sunset Boulevard (now playing on Broadway) also took home seven trophies at last year’s ceremony. Alongside the Best Musical Revival nod, Starlight triumphed in the categories of Best Professional Debut (for Jeevan Braich), Best Set Design (for Tim Hatley), Best Costume Design (for Gabriella Slade), Best Lighting Design (for Howard Hudson), Best Video Design (for Andrzej Goulding) and finally, for the newly introduced category of Best Wigs, Hair and Make-up Design (for Jackie Saundercock and Campbell Young Associates).

The Donmar Warehouse production of Macbeth also had multiple wins, not only being named Best Play Revival but also picking up awards for Best Sound Design (for Gareth Fry) and Best Performer in a Play (for David Tennant).

Imelda Staunton added another WhatsOnStage Award to her mantlepiece, taking home Best Performer in a Musical for Hello, Dolly!, following her wins for Sweeney Todd in 2013 and Gypsy in 2016, while other wins in the performance categories went to Freema Agyeman (Best Supporting Performer in a Play for Romeo and Juliet), Layton Williams (for Best Takeover Performance for Cabaret) and last year’s co-host Melanie La Barrie (Best Supporting Performer in a Musical for Hadestown, which also won Best Musical Direction/Supervision for Liam Robinson and Tarek Merchant).

The coveted Best New Musical and Best New Play awards saw two West End premiere film-to-stage adaptations come out on top, with Mean Girls and Spirited Away victorious in their respective categories, while Oliver! (now playing at the West End’s Gielgud Theatre) didn’t leave empty-handed – taking Best Regional Production thanks to its Chichester Festival Theatre run.

Other big winners on the night included Emma Rice (Best Direction for The Buddha of Suburbia) and Christopher Wheeldon (Best Choreography for MJ the Musical), and the recipient of the 2025 Services to UK Theatre Award went to esteemed lighting designer Paule Constable (find out more here), as she enters her retirement year.

Best Concert Event went to Something Rotten! in Concert, the newly revised category of Best Studio Production was won by Diary of a Gay Disaster and Best Casting Direction went to Harry Blumenau and Sarah-Jane Price (for Why Am I So Single?), while Six was crowned Best West End Show for an impressive fourth year.

You can see a complete list of nominees and winner (in bold) below:

Best Performer in a Musical – sponsored by Ticketmaster

– Georgina Castle, Mean Girls

– Jo Foster, Why Am I So Single?

– Myles Frost, MJ the Musical

– Imelda Staunton, Hello, Dolly!

– Leesa Tulley, Why Am I So Single?

– Vanessa Williams, The Devil Wears Prada

Best Supporting Performer in a Musical – sponsored by Newman Displays

– Siobhan Athwal, Bhangra Nation

– Amy Di Bartolomeo, The Devil Wears Prada

– Melanie La Barrie, Hadestown

– Grace Mouat, Mean Girls

– Jaydon Vijn, Starlight Express

– Tom Xander, Mean Girls

Best Performer in a Play – sponsored by Sine Digital

– Emma D’Arcy, The Other Place

– Tom Holland, Romeo and Juliet

– Cush Jumbo, Macbeth

– Anne Odeke, Princess Essex

– Michael Sheen, Nye

– David Tennant, Macbeth

Best Supporting Performer in a Play

– Freema Agyeman, Romeo and Juliet

– Romola Garai, Giant

– Julie Hesmondhalgh, Punch

– Teddy Hinde, The History Boys

– Atsuki Mashiko, Spirited Away

– Sharon Small, Nye

Best Takeover Performance – supported by Hurtwood House, the School for Theatre 

– Zoe Birkett, TINA – The Tina Turner Musical

– Cara Delevingne, Cabaret

– Craig Ryder, Moulin Rouge! the Musical

– Alex Sawyer, Hamilton

– Tobias Turley, Mamma Mia!

– Layton Williams, Cabaret

Best Professional Debut Performance – sponsored by AKA

– Esme Bowdler, Heathers the Musical

– Jeevan Braich, Starlight Express

– Stevie Doc, Mamma Mia!

– Vasco Emauz, Back to the Future the Musical

– Mia Kobayashi, Your Lie in April

– Gerardine Sacdalan, & Juliet

Best New Musical – sponsored by Travelzoo

– Babies, Jack Godfrey and Martha Geelan

– The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Darren Clark and Jethro Compton

– The Devil Wears Prada, Elton John, Shaina Taub, Mark Sonnenblick and Kate Wetherhead

– MJ the Musical, Michael Jackson and Lynn Nottage

– Mean Girls, Jeff Richmond, Nell Benjamin and Tina Fey

– Why Am I So Single?, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Best Musical Revival – sponsored by Concord Theatricals

– Dear Evan Hansen, Nottingham Playhouse and on tour

– Hadestown, Lyric Theatre

– Hello, Dolly!, The London Palladium

– Kiss Me, Kate, Barbican Theatre

– Oliver!, Chichester Festival Theatre

– Starlight Express, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Best New Play – sponsored by Go Live Theatre

– Giant, Mark Rosenblatt

– Kyoto, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson

– Princess Essex, Anne Odeke

– Punch, James Graham

– Slave Play, Jeremy O’Harris

– Spirited Away, adapted by John Caird and co-adapted by Maoko Imai

Best Play Revival – sponsored by Edwardian Hotels London – Official Hotel Partner

– A Raisin in the Sun, UK tour

– The Crucible, Crucible Theatre

– Macbeth, Donmar Warehouse and Harold Pinter Theatre

– Oedipus, Wyndham’s Theatre

– Romeo and Juliet, Duke of York’s Theatre

– Waiting for Godot, Theatre Royal Haymarket

Best West End Show – sponsored by Dewynters

– Cabaret, The Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre

– Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre

– Les Misérables, Sondheim Theatre

– Mamma Mia!, Novello Theatre

– Operation Mincemeat, Fortune Theatre

– Six, Vaudeville Theatre

Best Regional Production – sponsored by Music Theatre International

– 42 Balloons, The Lowry, Salford

– The Artist, Theatre Royal Plymouth

– Becoming Nancy, Birmingham Repertory Theatre

– Brassed Off, Theatre by the Lake, Stephen Joseph Theatre and Octagon Theatre Bolton

– Dear Evan Hansen, Nottingham Playhouse and UK tour

– Oliver!, Chichester Festival Theatre

Best Off-West End Production – sponsored by Theatrical Rights Worldwide

– Brace Brace, Royal Court

– Dear Young Monster, Bristol Old Vic

– Diary of a Gay Disaster, Underbelly Cowgate and Arcola Theatre

– Kenrex, Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield

– Mulatto Boy, Omnibus Theatre

– Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Barn Theatre, Cirencester

Best Concert Event

– Gypsy the Musical in Concert, Hope Mill Theatre at Opera House, Manchester

– I Am Harvey Milk, Cadogan Hall

– Pippin – 50th Anniversary Concert, Theatre Royal Drury Lane

– Something Rotten! – In Concert, Theatre Royal Drury Lane

– Sondheim on Sondheim, Alexandra Palace Theatre

– Spring Awakening: 15th Anniversary Concert, Victoria Palace Theatre

Best Direction – sponsored by LOVEtheatre

– Eline Arbo, The Years

– Robert Icke, Oedipus

– Anthony Lau, The Crucible

– James Macdonald, Waiting for Godot

– Drew McOnie, The Artist

– Emma Rice, The Buddha of Suburbia

Best Musical Direction/Supervision – sponsored by Disney’s Hercules

– Mark Aspinall and Dan Turek, Fiddler on the Roof

– Niraj Chag and Simon Baker, The Buddha of Suburbia

– Darren Clark and Mark Aspinall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

– Alasdair Macrae, Macbeth

– Matthew Malone, Brassed Off

– Liam Robinson and Tarek Merchant, Hadestown

Best Casting Direction

– Amy Ball, The Years

– Harry Blumenau and Sarah-Jane Price, Why Am I So Single?

– Stuart Burt, Fiddler on the Roof

– Alastair Coomer and Chloe Blake, Till the Stars Come Down

– Anna Cooper, Macbeth

– Lotte Hines, A Raisin in the Sun

Best Choreography – sponsored by LaDuca Shoes

– Matthew Bourne, Oliver!

– Julia Cheng, Fiddler on the Roof

– Drew McOnie, The Artist

– Rujuta Vaidya, Bhangra Nation

– Anthony Van Laast, Kiss Me, Kate

– Christopher Wheeldon, MJ the Musical

Best Costume Design

– Sachiko Nakahara, Spirited Away

– Lez Brotherston, Oliver!

– Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray

– Tom Scutt, Fiddler on the Roof

– Gabriella Slade, Starlight Express

– Rae Smith, Hello, Dolly!

Best Lighting Design – sponsored by White Light

– Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, Oliver!

– Howard Hudson, Starlight Express

– Jessica Hung Han Yun, Minority Report

– Tim Lutkin, Coriolanus

– Bruno Poet, Waiting for Godot

– Zoe Spurr, The Artist

Best Set Design – sponsored by Preevue

– Jon Bausor with puppetry by Toby Olié, Spirited Away

– Miriam Buether, Kyoto

– Es Devlin, Coriolanus

– Tim Hatley, Starlight Express

– Kenneth MacLeod, Maggie and Me

– Tom Scutt, Fiddler on the Roof

Best Sound Design – sponsored by HERE @ Outernet

– Paul Arditti, Brace Brace

– Susan Bear, Maggie and Me

– Nicola T Chang, Minority Report

– Gareth Fry, Macbeth

– Gareth Fry, Viola’s Room

– Gareth Owen, Starlight Express

Best Video Design – sponsored by TikTok

– David Bergman, The Picture of Dorian Gray

– Grant Gee and Ellie Thompson, Bluets

– Andrzej Goulding, Starlight Express

– Tal Rosner, Minority Report

– Ash J Woodward, The Artist

– Ash J Woodward, Fangirls

Best Wigs, Hair and Make Up Design, supported by BBC Three’s Glow Up 

– Campbell Young Associates, The Devil Wears Prada

– Jackie Saundercock and Campbell Young Associates, Starlight Express

– Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray

– Betty Marini, The Cabinet Minister

– Hiroaki Miyauchi, Spirited Away

– Georgia Nosal, The Artist