The winners were announced at a ceremony at 8 Northumberland Avenue.
This evening, the winners for this year’s The Stage Debut Awards were confirmed at a star-studded ceremony this evening.
It was confirmed that Rachel Zegler scooped the prize for Best West End Debut Performer for herperformance as Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Evita. She follows in the steps of previous winners including Jodie Comer, Rose Ayling-Ellis and Jack Wolfe.
Hosted by Julian Clary, Zegler’s win was the only one to be voted for by the public. The s shortlist also included Zegler’s Evita co-star Diego Andres Rodriguez; both Tosin Cole (Netflix’s Supacell) and his co-star Heather Agyepong for Shifters; Kat Ronney for Titanique; The Devil Wears Prada’s Georgie Buckland; Clueless the Musical’s Emma Flynn and Samuel Brewer in Oedipus.
This year’s 46 nominations across eight categories celebrated performers, composers, designers, writers, lyricists and directors whose breakthrough work premiered across theatres from all four nations of the UK.
Among the other winners was former Best Writer nominee Richard Mylan winning Best Director for Mumfighter at the Swansea Grand Theatre and Milly Sweeney who wrote Water Colour,, shared the prize for Best Writer alongside Essex screenwriter Ava Pickett, whose Almeida Theatre production of 1536.
This year’s Best Performer in a Play’s eight-strong shortlist was narrowed to a joint award going to Hilson Agbangbe for his star turn in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy and Lucy Karczewski for Stereophonic at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London.
In the all-female shortlist for Best Musical Performer, Why Am I So Single?’s Leesa Tulley took home the top prize, with Australian Yve Blake’s Fangirl bringing her the accolade for the Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer award.
Celebrating those who work behind the scenes in the shape of Best Designer, Hannah Schmidt won the award for her work on sets and costumes across two shows, The Passenger (Finborough Theatre) and Personal Values (Hampstead Theatre), while director Mark Rosenblatt’s pivot to playwriting was richly rewarded with the prize for Best Creative West End Debut for Giant.
Tonight’s ceremony also featured live performances from Just For One Day’s Craige Els; Jesus Christ Superstar’s Parisa Shamir; former winner of Mama Mia! I Have A Dream!’s Tobias Turley performing a song from new musical Hot Mess, as well as the cast of Magic Mike Live who dropped in to perform a surprise grand finale.
Talking about the news, The Stage editor Alistair Smith said: “This year’s winners range from Hollywood star Rachel Zegler making her West End debut to our most regionally and internationally diverse line-up yet, with productions from Scotland, Wales and Bristol recognised alongside talent from Australia. It’s a vivid reminder of the extraordinary breadth of artists making their debuts on UK stages – and a clear sign that the future of the sector is in safe hands.”