2002 WhatsOnStage Awards

The WhatsOnStage Awards, founded in 2001 as the Theatregoers' Choice Awards, are a fan-driven set of awards organised by the theatre website WhatsOnStage.com, based on a popular vote recognising performers and productions of English theatre, with an emphasis on London's West End theatre.

The results of the 2002 Whatsonstage Awards were:

Nominations in full

Best Supporting Actor in a Play

Ned Beatty for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric)
Denis Quilley for Humble Boy (NT Cottesloe)
Eric Sykes for Caught in the Net (Vaudeville)
Ian Hart for The Homecoming (Comedy)
Ian McDiarmid for Faith Healer (Almeida)
Phil Davis for Tales from Hollywood (Donmar Warehouse)

Best Actress in a Musical

Frances Barber for Closer to Heaven (Arts)
Anita-Louise Combe for Hello Again (Bridewell)
Golda Roshuevel for Songs for a New World (Bridewell)
Marin Mazzie for Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
Ruthie Henshall for Peggy Sue Got Married (Shaftesbury)
Tracie Bennett for Last Song of the Nightingale (New End)

Best Actor in a Musical

Craig Purnell for Songs for a New World (Bridewell)
Brent Barrett for Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
Cameron Blakely, Where's Charley? (Open Air, Regent's Park)
Jonathan Pryce for My Fair Lady (NT Lyttelton/Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
Paul Keating for Closer to Heaven (Arts)
Philip Quast for The Secret Garden (Aldwych)

Best Supporting Performance in a Musical

Craig Purnell for The Secret Garden (Aldwych)
Michael Beresse for Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
Nancy Anderson for Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
Nicholas Le Prevost for My Fair Lady (NT Lyttelton/Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
Linzi Hateley for The Secret Garden (Aldwych)
Gavin Lee for Peggy Sue Got Married (Shaftesbury)

Best Solo Performance

Linda Marlowe in Berkoff's Women (New Ambassadors)
Jackie Mason in The Millennium Show (Queen's)
Pieter-Dirk Uys in Foreign Aids (Tricycle)
Thembi Mtshali in A Woman in Waiting (New Ambassadors)
Debora Weston in See How Beautiful I Am (Bush)

Best Ensemble Performance

The Play What I Wrote (Wyndham's)
Cloudstreet (NT Olivier)
Jitney (NT Lyttelton)
Remembrance of Things Past (NT Olivier)
Tantalus (Barbican Theatre's BITE season)
The Mill on the Floss (Shared Experience at the New Ambassadors)

Best New Play

Charlotte Jones, Humble Boy (NT Cottesloe)
August Wilson, Jitney (NT Lyttelton)
Conor McPherson, Port Authority (New Ambassadors)
Jonathan Harvey, Out in the Open (Hampstead)
Neil LaBute, The Shape of Things (Almeida at King's Cross)
Rebecca Gilman, Boy Gets Girl (Royal Court)

Best New Comedy

Alistair Beaton, Feelgood (Hampstead/Garrick)
Ray Cooney, Caught in the Net (Vaudeville)
The Right Size & Eddie Braben, The Play What I Wrote (Wyndham's)
The Right Size, Bewilderness (Lyric Hammersmith)

Best New Musical

The Secret Garden (Aldwych)
Closer to Heaven (Arts)
Hello Again (Bridewell)
One Touch of Venus (King's Head)
Shout! (Jermyn Street Theatre)
Songs for a New World (Bridewell)

Best Play Revival

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (New Ambassadors)
A Lie of the Mind (Donmar Warehouse)
A Raisin in the Sun (Young Vic)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric)
Private Lives (Albery)
The Servant (Lyric Hammersmith)

Best Musical Revival

Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
My Fair Lady (NT Lyttelton/Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
Where's Charley? (Open Air, Regent's Park)

Best Shakespearean Production

Love's Labours Lost (Open Air)
A Winter's Tale (NT Olivier)
' This England season of History Plays (RSC at Barbican/Young Vic)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Albery)
Cymbeline (Shakespeare's Globe)
The Tragedy of Hamlet (Young Vic)

Best Director

Howard Davies for Private Lives (Albery)
Ian Rickson for Mouth to Mouth (Royal Court/Albery) & Boy Gets Girl (Royal Court)
Max Stafford-Clark for Feelgood (Hampstead/Garrick), Sliding with Suzanne (Royal Court) & Rita, Sue & Bob Too / A State Affair (Soho)
Philip Prowse for Semi-Monde (Lyric)
Ray Cooney for Caught in the Net (Vaudeville)
Richard Jones for Six Characters Looking for an Author (Young Vic)

Best Set Designer

Sue Blane for The Relapse (NT Olivier)
Giles Cadle for The Shape of Things (Almeida at King's Cross) & Mother Clap's Molly House (NT Lyttelton)
Jessica Curtis for Dangerous Corner (Garrick)
Paul Brown for Platonov (Almeida at King's Cross)
Tim Hatley for Humble Boy (NT Cottesloe) & Private Lives (Albery)
Rae Smith for Antarctica (Lyric)

Best Choreographer

Peter Darling, Closer to Heaven (Arts)
Kathleen Marshall, Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace)
Matthew Bourne, My Fair Lady (NT Lyttelton)
Todd Twala, Umoja (Shaftesbury)

London Newcomer of the Year

Emily Blunt (actress) for The Royal Family (Haymarket)
Benjamin Davies (actor) in F***ing Games (Royal Court Upstairs)
Chris Chibnall (playwright) for Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Soho)
Gregory Burke (playwright) for Gagarin Way (NT Cottesloe)
Katie Foster-Barnes (actress) in Dangerous Corner (Garrick)
Laurie Sansom (director) for Dangerous Corner (Garrick)

Top Turkey of 2002

All You Need is Love (Queen's)
God Only Knows (Vaudeville)
King Stag (BITE, Barbican)
Over the Moon (Old Vic)
Under the Doctor (Comedy)
Ute Lemper's Naughty Baby (Savoy)