Sir Elton to cheer on Billy

Elton John wrote the score for the Billy Elliot musical.

Sir Elton John and Gillian Anderson are among the stars who will attend the 51st Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Savoy on Monday.

Anderson, who is starring as Lady Dedlock in BBC1's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, will present the best designer award at the capital's most prestigious theatre event.

Since she quit the hit sci-fi series The X-Files, Anderson has twice appeared on stage in London - in The Sweetest Swing In Baseball and What The Night Is For.

The contenders for the award are Paul Brown for As You Desire Me, Bob Crowley for Mary Poppins and Christopher Oram and Paule Constable, jointly, for Don Carlos.

Sir Elton will be cheering on Billy Elliot, the smash hit show for which he wrote the songs, in the best musical category. He will be joined by the show's executive producer and his partner, David Furnish. Billy Elliot faces competition from Sir Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins and The Big Life.

This year's awards will be presented by Ned Sherrin, marking a welcome return for the writer who last fronted them in 1997.

"It's always my favourite gig," Sherrin said. "It's a great reunion of all the people you want to meet in theatreland. There's a very good list of contenders this year."

Shortlisted for the Sydney Edwards Award for best director are Sir Richard Eyre for Hedda Gabler and Mary Poppins, Michael Grandage for Don Carlos and Grand Hotel and Jonathan Kent for As You Desire Me.

The award will be presented by Joseph Fiennes who is currently starring in the revival of Epitaph For George Dillon, by John Osborne and Anthony Creighton, at the Comedy Theatre. The award for best play will be presented by Sinead Cusack who will soon be seen in BBC1 sitcom Home Again.

In the running for best play are Bloody Sunday by Richard Norton-Taylor, Harvest by Richard Bean, The Home Place by Brian Friel and Two Thousand Years by Mike Leigh. Felicity Kendal will present the best actor award to one of three nominees: Brian Dennehy for Death Of A Salesman, Simon Russell Beale for The Philanthropist and Derek Jacobi for Don Carlos.

Arnold Wesker, who won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for most promising playwright in 1959, will present the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright, which comes with a £30,000 cheque.

Wesker is currently enjoying a run of success with his new play Longitude, which was staged at the Greenwich Theatre last month while the Tricycle Theatre recently revived his first play Chicken Soup With Barley. The nominees for the most promising playwright award are Ryan Craig for What We Did To Weinstein, Neil Leyshon for Comfort Me With Apples and Simon

Mendes da Costa for Losing Louis. The ceremony will be hosted by Lady Rothermere, wife of Lord Rothermere, chairman of Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the Evening Standard.

Other stars at the event include John Hurt, Stephen Daldry, Emilia Fox, Alan Rickman, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Frayn, Fiona Shaw, Brenda Blethyn, Sir Peter Hall, Diana Quick, Jonathan Pryce, Prunella Scales, Timothy West, Eve Best, Claire Bloom, Peter Bowles, Brian Friel, Rupert Graves, Clare Higgins, Julia McKenzie, Lesley Manville, Alison Steadman and Patrick Stewart.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in