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In Pictures: The 2012 Off West End Awards

Franco Milazzo — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:00:26 +0000

If you wanted to take the pulse of London’s exciting fringe theatre scene over the last 12 months, there was no better place to be than this unique celebration.

This year’s ceremony took place at the Theatre Royal Stratford East (about as far off from the West End as you can get) and attracted a host of stars. Louise Jameson – stepping in for last year’s host Simon Callow – presented the evening with Rising Damp’s Don Warrington, Casino Royale’s Danny Webb, last week’s Being Human baddie Alex Jennings and Gavin & Stacey’s Alison Steadman (amongst others) taking to the stage to hand out the prizes.

The big winner on the night was undoubtably the Finborough Theatre. Handily situated above a wine bar in Earl’s Court, the tiny venue has packed a powerful punch in recent times in large part thanks to its only paid member of staff, Artistic Director Neil McPherson, who has been at the venue since 1999. He echoed last year’s result by again walking away with the award for Best Artistic Director while his production of Emlyn Williams’ 1950 drama Accolade collected five prizes including Best Male Performance for Aden Gilett and Best Director for Blanche McIntyre. The play’s success at the box office would not have been hurt by its modern theme of unwarranted media intrusion and having amongst its cast a certain Graham Seed who attracted national attention a few weeks before Accolade’s press night by falling off a roof.

Close behind, Clapham’s Landor Theatre got its mitts on four Offies, three of which were down to its musical Ragtime while the critically-acclaimed Mogadishu was nominated twice but left empty-handed.

As well as the professionally judged awards, there were those voted for the public. These included the People’s Favourite Female and Male Performances won this year by Count Oederland’s Evelyn Adams and Joe Sims for As We Forgive Them at the New Arcola.

There’s no doubt that the summer of 2012 will be an interesting year for London theatre. On the one hand, the summer will see a record-breaking influx of tourists keen to see beach volleyball and other sports who may be keen to indulge in one of the capital’s more renowned diversions; on the other, it may be too much to ask sore-bottomed Olympic attendees to pay for another session of sit-and-watch meaning that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cassandra-like wailing may actually come to pass. How fringe theatre will fare over the next 12 months is anyone’s guess but here’s hoping it will continue its strong traditions of quality, innovation and bravery.

All photos (c) Lisa Thomson.

Ticket Alert: NME Awards & Brit Awards Party

Dave Newbury — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:08 +0000

We find it impossible not to get excited about music awards and with this year’s star-spangled Brit and NME ceremonies dominated by London artists — such as Adele and The Vaccines — there’s every reason to want a bit of the action.

Luckily this year you can join in. Tickets to attend the NME awards go on sale tomorrow morning, and tickets for a special Brit Awards Party in aid of War Child will be available from Saturday. Both feature unique performances from London’s best talent.

OK, you won’t be treading the red carpet (your mates don’t have to know that) but opportunities to see Florence Welch collaborate with the Horrors at the NME awards and Damon Albarn with Graham Coxon in their first show together since the phenomenal Blur reunion shows simply cannot be missed.

Tickets for the NME Awards @ Brixton Academy, 29 February are on sale 9am Friday 3 February through See Tickets.

The Brit Awards Party @ Shepherds Bush Empire, 19 February tickets on sale 9am Saturday 4 February through Ticket Web.

Red carpet photo by Alex_Pink via the Londonist Flickrpool.

Exhibition Review: Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011 @ Design Museum

Zoe Craig — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:00:44 +0000

Yike Bike by Urban Freedom

The Brit Insurance Design Awards are the Oscars of the design world, celebrating the most innovative and creative designs from around the world in a competitive “design-off.”

Pop along to the exhibition of this year’s contenders at the Design Museum, and alongside every-day items like the ipad, the Fiat 500 and the Dyson Air Multiplier, you can ponder the design merits of a shiny black diamond-inspired coffin, energy-generating paving stones and an “intimaterider” – a device for “enhancing sexual mobility for those with limited or no lower body muscle control.”

It’s an eclectic show, as the seven different prize categories (architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport) suggest. There can’t be many other exhibitions in London at the moment where you can check out high street fashion (Jil Sander’s work for Uniqlo) alongside sleek fire extinguishers designed to be easy on the eye and operated with one arm, think about the impact of Boris’ bikes on London, and play Angry Birds on an ipad.

There are enough intriguing housing solutions to satisfy even the most dedicated follower of Kevin McCloud and his Grand Designs. As well as plenty of nods to how good design can enhance lives as well as entertain. If there is a theme to this year’s shortlisted designs, it seems to be sustainability and efficiency. With a dose of interactivity thrown in.

With such a varied offering of gorgeous gizmos on display, we certainly don’t envy the judges their task of choosing winners. But we do recommend you go and see this exhibition: there’s bound to be something you’ll enjoy pondering, playing with or participating in.

The Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition is at the Design Museum until 7 August. Tickets cost £10 and you can buy them from ticketweb. The category winners will be announced on 28 February, with the overall winner being crowned at the Awards Night on the 15 March.

Love Never Dies leads Laurence Olivier Award Nominations

Zoe Craig — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:30:19 +0000

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom sequel Love Never Dies has received seven nominations for the Laurence Olivier theatre awards.

As well as being up for best new musical, the show’s stars Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Summer Strallen are nominated for prizes. It’s also contending for best lighting, set and costume design.

Love Never Dies opened to very mixed reviews in March last year: this nomination follows a four-day closure in November when substantial changes were made to the play.

It’s up against Fela!, Legally Blonde and Love Story for the best new musical prize.

Two stars of those shows, Sheridan Smith (Elle in Legally Blonde) and Emma Williams (Jenny in Love Story) will fight it out for best actress in a musical.

The National Theatre has an impressive 17 nominations, including six for Thea Sharrock’s production of After The Dance by Terence Rattigan. King Lear at the Donmar Warehouse has five nominations in total.

Rory Kinnear is in the Best Actor category for Hamlet at the National; he’s facing off against David Suchet in All My Sons, Roger Allam in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Derek Jacobi’s King Lear and last year’s winner, Mark Rylance, for his work in La Bete.

Tamsin Greig and Sophie Thompson are up for the best actress prize for their roles in The Little Dog Laughed and Clybourne Park respectively. As we predicted, Tracie Bennett is shortlisted for playing Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow.

End of the Rainbow, The Little Dog Laughed and Clybourne Park are all nominated for the best new play award.

There will be live coverage of this year’s awards ceremony, which takes place on Sunday 13 March, on BBC Radio 2 and on TV via the BBC Red Button. Visit www.olivierawards.com to find out more.

Photo by Catherine Ashmore shows Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess in Love Never Dies

London Film Festival Awards Announced

Londonist — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:00:51 +0000

Manjinder Virk as Lorraine Dunbar

It has been a good year for women film directors. First Katherine Bigelow trumped her ex James Cameron at the Oscars with her gritty war drama The Hurt Locker. Now the artist-filmmaker Clio Barnard has won two of the five awards – Best British Newcomer and the Sutherland Award – given out at the BFI London Film Festival yesterday for her amazingly experimental film The Arbor based on the life of the troubled Bradford playwright, Andrea Dunbar.

Barnard interviewed family and friends of Andrea Dunbar – including her daughter Lorraine Dunbar, who is in rehab – and formed the film’s screenplay using the edited audio-clips of the interviews, which the actors lip-sync to.

Alexei Popogrebsky won the Best Film award for How I Ended This Summer, Janus Metz’s Armadillo won the Best Documentary award and Danny Boyle won the British Film Festival fellowship for his film 127 Hours, which closes the festival at a gala screening in the Leicester Square Odeon tonight.

Want to see The Arbor? Find out where’s it’s playing in London.

By Chetna Prakash

Celebrate Hackney’s Unsung Heroes

Lindsey — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:30:43 +0000

Voluntary and community organisations often do vital work with very little recognition, except from those who benefit. Hackney recognises its unsung heroes with the Adiaha Antigha Community Achievement Awards 2010. Any Hackney-based voluntary or community sector organisations can be nominated in 6 categories. The organisation to win “the most enterprising in adapting to current challenges” is the one to watch – as government cuts hit only the niftiest and thriftiest will thrive. Download the simple nomination form now and get it in by Tuesday 31st August. The awards will be presented at HCVS’ Hackney Futures Fair on Tuesday, 7 September. (Image / award winner 2009 Hackney Migrant Centre by Katherine Green)

Preview: London Lifestyle Awards

Ben Norum — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:07:07 +0000

Who is that in the bicycle helmet?

London isn’t really short of award ceremonies, but there’s another one on the horizon – The London Lifestyle Awards. Dubbed “A celebration of every aspect of London’s fantastic way of life”, once we get over the emphatic adjectives we quite like the idea of it.

The so-called LLA’s will “pay tribute to the outstanding contributions by businesses and individuals to one of the most cosmopolitan, entertaining and visited cities in the world” (that’s London, by the way). An awards committee has been created to draw up a shortlist for each of the 16 categories and once that’s done, we’ll all be able to vote for who we think deserves to win.

The committee comprises “12 of the most influential and celebrated people in London”. CBBC presenter Angellica Bell and GMTV presenter Michael Underwood (who incidentally are an item) are key members. Really? Anyway, looks like this motley crew might just need your help, so email emily@londonlifestyleawards.com with your suggestions for any of the awards categories to make sure your favourite gets a look in. The shortlist will be announced on 23rd August.

See all the categories and how to vote on their website. Perhaps Londonist deserves an “outstanding contribution to London” gong?

Preview: 10th Annual Brick Lane Curry Festival

caroliner — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:30:18 +0000

Celebrating not only its 10th year of existence but also the 200th anniversary of curry being served in the UK, 2010’s Brick Lane Curry Festival looks set to be hotter than ever. Running from today until 4th June, the festival will provide a colourful programme of entertainment, competitions and, most importantly, special menus created for this occasion.

The fiery fortnight is sponsored by Cobra beer, whose founder, Lord Karan Bilimoria, spoke at yesterday’s launch of how he is ‘privileged to sponsor this terrific annual event’ after having started out hand-delivering beer on Brick Lane over 20 years ago.He also presented Cobra’s ‘Best of Brick Lane Awards’, which included a recognition of host restaurant Clifton as the best value for money. Incidentally, outgoing Tower Hamlets Mayor Ahmed Omer also has fond memories of Clifton, as in the 1970s he and his siblings ‘used to save up our pocket money for a month just to have the taste of a curry’. As the Mayor opened the festival and all of Brick Lane’s curry entrepreneurs gathered around, the great strength of this self-made community was clear and their enthusiasm, as well as their pride in what they’ve achieved, is surely a sound basis for this popular festival, which last year attracted over 60,000 attendees. Whilst there are undoubtedly some sub-par curry venues on Brick Lane, the discounts (up to 20%) offered during the next fortnight will at least allow you to explore and find your favourites without breaking the bank.

One particular event to watch out for is the Cobra ’Mela’ on 31st May, which boasts not only live music and dancing but also the chance to sample the finalists in the ‘best curry on Brick Lane’ competition and wash them down with a free beer. We had a sneaky taste yesterday and, whilst all of the entries were very good, our money’s on the surprising and succulent fish offering from restaurant Mango.

The festival runs from 21st May – 4th June and includes the family-friendly Baishakhi Mela on Sunday and the Cobra mela on 31st May at Vibe bar from 12pm (Curry sampling between 1-3pm). Nearest tube is Aldate East.

Fancyapint Best London Pubs 2009

Lindsey — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:02 +0000

Last night, a smattering of the cream of the London pub trade gathered at the Lord Clyde on Essex Road to scoff wicked scotch eggs and sausages and cheer the achievements of 13 ace London pubs as recipients of Fancyapint awards.

The annual awards are split into 2 categories: readers’ and reviewers’ awards and 2 awards for ‘most improved’. Last night, a special reviewers’ award went to The Colton Arms, Barons Court for 10 whole years of consistent excellent pub-ness. Now you have an excuse to find out where Barons Court really is and pay a visit to this 5-pinter.

Check out all the winners after the jump. Let us know what you think: have you been to any of them? Will you be going now? Do you disagree with the verdicts? Is your favourite boozer rewarded? Do comment. Meanwhile, congratulations to all the winning pubs.

Visitors’ Awards

Overall winner: The Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon (55 Britton Street, EC1M 5NA, 020 7490 4281 )

A unique pub with great beers from the award-winning St Peter’s Brewery and a wonderful interior.

Commercial Tavern, Shoreditch (142 Commercial Street, E1 6NU,020 7247 1888)

An artier affair, mixing the bohemian with the traditional to make a very individual pub.

Churchill Arms, Notting Hill (119 Kensington Church Street, W8 7LN, 020 7727 4242)

Famous for a long time, and placed as one of London’s great pubs in our book.

Princess Louise, Holborn (208-209 High Holborn, WC1V 7BW, 020 7405 8816)

Fantastic revamped Victorian interior and a stalwart of the Sam Smith’s chain – probably the most beautiful pub in London.

Wilmington Arms, Clerkenwell (69 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4RL, 020 7837 1384)

Busy and popular live music pub – the place to see up and coming talent in London.

Reviewers’ awards

Overall winner: Lord Clyde, Highbury (342 Essex Road, N1 3PB, 020 7288 9850)

A traditional pub that has successfully made the move upmarket, but hasn’t forgotten what a pub is about, with great beer and food as an added bonus.

Antelope, Belgravia (22 Eaton Terrace, SW1W 8EZ, 020 7824 8512)

Excellent, cricket-obsessed local in the heart of Belgravia with great beer and atmosphere.

Eagle, Old Street (2 Shepherdess Walk, N1 7LB, 020 7250 0507)

Described as a ‘tarted up gin palace’ this one’s got good beers and a popular beer garden, mixing modern with traditional to good effect.

King Charles I, King’s Cross (55-57 Northdown Street, N1 9BL, 020 7837 7758)

A friendly and relaxed pub – if a trifle on the eccentric side – just around the corner from King’s Cross, and great beer, including local ales.

North Pole, Docklands (74 Manilla Street, E14 8LG, 020 7987 5443)

A top traditional local just a Blackberry’s throw from the braying Canary Wharf hordes.

Most Improved

Earl Ferrers, Streatham (22 Ellora Road, SW16 6JF, 020 8835 8333)

A superb gastro-local in the hinterland off Streatham High Road that is light years away from it’s predecessor.

Shaftesbury Tavern, Archway (534 Hornsey Road, N19 3QN, 020 7272 7950)

A pub reborn from the ashes – authentic Victorian décor and great beer make this one to go out of your way for.

Photography by Gordon Butler

Fancyapint provides an affable and well rounded perspective on London pubs. You can consult the collected wit and wisdom of the fancyapint crew online or buy their book. Know and love pubs? Perhaps you could become a reviewer.

Fashion Diversity Awards Show

Lindsey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:30:02 +0000

Here are some shots from the Fashion Diversity launch held on Thursday night. There were awards for fashion houses Gisella Boutique, Junky Styling and Nico Didonna and a preview of the catwalk shows showcasing emerging and student fashion talent to be held at Museum of London yesterday and today.

If you didn’t catch the shows then use these pictures to get some tips on fresh female London style ready for tonight on the town. We’re particularly enamoured of the orange silky jumpsuit, slinky dresses of all lengths and the trend for having your bra on show.

More from fashion’s frontline in the morning.

Photography by Tyla Arabas

London Film Festival Lottery Luck

Lindsey — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:20:31 +0000

By mlazopoulou via the Londonist Flickrpool

We were moist with anticipation over the 52nd London Film Festival so we’ll be investing in a pack of Tena Lady for this year as the LFF just secured Lottery funding to make it bigger and better than ever. On top of it being a public festival and jolly reasonable to boot, the extra funding will enable a more high profile awards giving shebang and a proper online presence for the fest, giving virtual access to film maker masterclasses and live streaming from the red carpet for those all important sleb shots. The 53rd BFI London Film Festival runs from 14-29 October 2009.

Shivery BAFTAs

Rachel Holdsworth — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:00:09 +0000

Image courtesy of FoxyCoxy under a Creative Commons licence

The film world shivered and huddled under brollies on the red carpet outside the Royal Opera House for last night’s BAFTAs, presumably reciting a mantra about the Oscars and sunny LA not being far away. But the cold couldn’t stop the Brit bandwagon as Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up and Kate Winslet continued her Extras-esque road to the Academy.

There were wins for the capital’s homegrown talent, too. Steve McQueen took the Carl Foreman award for achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film (seriously, that’s its full title) for Hunger. Noel Clarke snaffled the Orange Rising Star award, less for his Doctor Who appearances and more for his sterling work on Kidulthood and Adulthood.

Our hearts were stolen by Dev Patel though, bouncing up and down, signing autographs and chatting to the press. Aw. (We also love Michael Sheen being very Welsh in that video. Celebrity curly-haired crush ahoy?)

And anyone wondering wtf that reference to salad was in Jonathan Ross’s introduction to the costume design award, followers of Wossy on Twitter were less baffled. He asked for “one odd, unexpected word from Twitter and try to slip it, unnoticed, into BAFTA. Lets go !” (and then promised nothing sexual; probably wise). Ah, Twitter: even on a night of glamour, it still gets the last word.

Gongs For London

Rachel Holdsworth — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:44:57 +0000

We here at Londonist like to think of ourselves as a forward thinking bunch and the latest honours list should have us sneering at such an archaic and elitist exercise. But, when we looked at it properly, we couldn’t help making small ‘yay’ noises.

Six people who bravely gave help during the July 2005 bombings have been awarded MBEs, despite the Cabinet Office previously saying that doing amazing things during the carnage wasn’t enough. Tim Coulson was one of three people who broke into the bombed Edgware Road train, and helped save the life of a woman who had been blasted onto the tracks. PC Elizabeth Kenworthy was on the train at Aldgate and is credited with saving three lives. Stephen Hucklesby also helped the injured at Edgware Road. Off-duty policeman Gerald McIllmurray was one of the first people on the scene at Oval on 21 July, where he protected passengers and examined the failed bomb. Also getting MBEs for not doing what most of us would – i.e., leg it – are David Matthews and Antonio Silvestro. Gill Hicks, who lost both legs in the Russell Square attack, gets an MBE for her charity work. She completed a 200 mile awareness raising walk this summer.

There are MBEs for London Olympians Christine Ohuruogo and James DeGale, making the point that it’s not all about the cyclists, y’know.

And to round off a rather splendid sweep for the capital, we can claim four of the six newly created Dames: Jenny Abramsky, Professor Sally Davies, Anne Owers and Rosalind Savill.

(By the way, Terry Pratchett is also now a Sir, but he lives in Wiltshire so we’re temporarily expanding London’s borders for this one paragraph.)

Londonist: forgetting our progressive principles whenever it bally well suits us.

Image by marcus_jb1973 under the Creative Commons licence

Evening Standard Theatre Award Winners Announced

Zoe Craig — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:10:00 +0000

The dominant Donmar picked up four of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards this year, proving that small can also be powerful when it comes to theatre.

Eight years after winning Most Promising Newcomer in the same awards, the gorgeous Chiwetel Ejiofor takes the Best Actor gong for his Othello, despite hot competition from David Calder’s Lear and Kenneth Branagh’s Ivanov.

Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton were named Best Actress jointly by the judges for their performances in Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden at the Donmar.

(Oh to have been a fly on the wall while that non-decision was being reached.)

Michael Grandage, Big Daddy (Artistic Director) of the Donmar, who directed Othello, The Chalk Garden and Ivanov beat Michael Boyd and John Tiffany to win the Best Director award for the third time.

In a shortlist that was criticised for shunning commercial theatre, even the more populist musicals (Marguerite, La Cage Aux Folles) lost out to the Young Vic’s Street Scene.

A Special Award went to Kevin Spacey for bringing the Old Vic back into our hearts, and the Editor’s Award (or Award for Sheer Gobsmacking Brilliance, as it shall now be known) went to the RSC’s Histories Cycle.

For lovers of theatre, awards, and theatre awards, the Evening Standard Theatre Awards are just the beginning of a whole season of shiny silverware. If your favourites didn’t feature today, then there’s always the Critics Circle Awards, the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards and the prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards in March.

Check out the full results here, and let us know what you think.

Picture of the lovely Chiwetel from Thomas Roche’s photostream under the creative commons licence.

Kevin Spacey, Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman up for Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Zoe Craig — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:30:00 +0000

The Evening Standard kicked off the 08/09 British Theatre awards season announcing their longlist of theatrical heavy-weights, newcomers, regulars and Hollywood stars for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Kevin Spacey and Kenneth Branagh fight it out for the best actor accolade; Kev for Speed-The-Plow at the Old Vic, Ken for Ivanov, currently at Wyndham’s.

Wanna be in their gang? Better get some Shakespeare into your repertoire. Alongside Branagh and Spacey in the best actor category are David Calder for Lear, Chiwetel Ejiofor for Othello, Simon Russell Beale for Much Ado at the National, and the wonderful Jonathan Slinger for his Richards in the phenomenal Histories series at the Roundhouse.

Fewer big names grace the Best Actress long list: Lesley Manville, Helen McCrory, Phoebe Nicholls, Lesley Sharp, Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton.

The National comes up trumps with three productions in the Best Play category – The Pitmen Painters, Never So Good and Her Naked Skin – fight off the military pairing of Black Watch and Days Of Significance and political drama, Now Or Later.

Those in the running for Best Director include everyone’s favourite Sheriff of Nottingham, Alan Rickman, who took time out from being in Harry Potter to direct Creditors at the Donmar.

Rickman faces strong competition from this Londonista’s favourite, Rupert Goold (who won for his Macbeth last year, and we feel should get it on the strength of the incredible Six Characters in Search of an Author alone); big dog Michael Grandage, artistic director of the Donmar, and Michael Boyd, who, as the guy behind a huge chunk of the Histories series, is another name to watch.

See the full Evening Standards Theatre Awards Longlist here. What do you think? Wondering why Josh Hartnett’s not on there? Confused about the inclusion of Eurobeat? Looking for Zorro’s recognition? Let us know.

The shortlist’s announced on Friday; watch this space.

Images shows our Kev in Speed-The-Plow at the Old Vic; picture by Manuel Harlan

Blowing Our Own Trumpet

Lindsey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:26:22 +0000

With voting now closed for the Bloggies 2008 we’re sitting on the edge of our un-ergonomic seats awaiting the results (the awards ceremony will be held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, USA on Monday, March 10 with the results posted online shortly afterwards). Who will be crowned Best European Weblog? The suspense is killing us.

In the meantime then, how nice to wake up on a foggy Wednesday and find out that Time Out thinks we’re one of the top ten community websites in London.

We’d like to share the special warm glow we’re feeling with all of you – our community. Although, we thought we were a blog. A community blog? A city community? Over to you. Discuss. And happy Wednesday.