Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards (and what my own votes were)

Today I hosted the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards in my capacity as chairman of the drama section of the Critics’ Circle, held as usual at the splendid Delfont Room at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Unlike other awards ceremonies that I’m also connected to, where we debate, argue and eventually agree on who should take home the prizes, the Critics’ Circle Awards happen entirely without outside influence or horse-trading: we each cast our votes individually by private ballot, which are then collated by our awards administrator Catherine Cooper to produce winners based on the largest number of votes cast in favour of each candidate in each category.
Theoretically, of course, the fifty or so active ballot papers that are submitted could be cast in favour of 50 different candidates in each category; but in reality, favourites always emerge.
As chairman, I get to see each critics’ individual ballot papers — as I have to work out who to invite to present each award, and of course I can only ask critics to present an award to someone they’ve actually voted for — and it makes for interesting reading! I’m not going to reveal who voted for what here, but I can at least tell you what I voted for. And it turned out that, out of the eight categories, my votes contributed to wins in three categories only (Best New Play, Best Actor and Most Promising Playwright)!
My own votes:
BEST NEW PLAY : KING CHARLES III by Mike Bartlett
BEST MUSICAL (new or revival) : THE LION by Benjamin Scheuer (St James Theatre Studio)
BEST ACTOR : MARK STRONG for A View from the Bridge (Young Vic)
BEST ACTRESS: IMELDA STAUNTON for Good People (Almeida, then Noel Coward)
BEST SHAKESPEAREAN PERFORMANCE: SIMON RUSSELL BEALE for King Lear (National’s Olivier)
BEST DIRECTOR : MATT RYAN for DOGFIGHT (Southwark Playhosue)
BEST DESIGNER : BUNNY CHRISTIE for MADE IN DAGENHAM (Adelphi Theatre)
MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT : BARNEY NORRIS for VISITORS (Arcola, then Bush Theatre)
The Jack Tinker Award for
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER other than a playwright : LAURA JANE MATTHEWSON, actor in DOGFIGHT (Southwark Playhouse)

Mark Shenton

Mark Shenton has been a full-time freelance London-based theatre critic and journalist since 2002, and is proud to have co-founded MyTheatreMates with Terri Paaddock. He has variously (and sometimes simultaneously) been chief theatre critic for the Sunday Express, The Stage, WhatsOnStage, What's On in London magazine and LondonTheatre.co.uk. He has taught at ArtsEd London in Chiswick on musical theatre history since 2012. He was until recently President of the Critics' Circle, and is also on the board of Mercury Musical Developments and the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF). You can follow him on Twitter @ShentonStage, and on instagram at @ShentonStage. His personal website is www.shentonstage.com.