Theatre

West End Wilma hosts a star-studded theatre awards bash

Hello dears,

Wow what a week it’s been. After six months of planning, the 2015 West End Wilma Awards took place on Friday 30 October 2015 at the beautiful Hippodrome Casino’s Matcham Room.

West End Wilma Awards

It was a star-studded #Stagey event with some theatre fans arriving hours early to ensure they didn’t miss any of the action. Guests included the incredible Beverley Knight (picking up the award for Best Vocal Performance for Memphis), Jon Jon Briones and Eva Noblezada (who took home the Best Actor and Best Actress awards for Miss Saigon) and Julie Legrand was on hand to accept the Best West End Show Award for Gypsy. Rachel Tucker won the Best Cabaret/Solo Performance Award for her solo concert at the St James Theatre and even though she is currently playing Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, she sent a special video message for her fans. Guest presenters at the ceremony included Ashleigh Gray (who also accepted the Best Touring Show Award for Wicked), Gabriella Williams (Mamma Mia!), Oliver Saville (Wicked) and Dean McCulloch (E4).

West End Wilma Awards Miss Saigon

You can see all of the winners here.

Live performances came from host Tim McArthur, Gina Beck and Kieran Brown who performed a specially rewritten version of Rose’s Turn from Gypsy titled Wilma’s Turn.

Kieran Brown - Wilma Turn (Gypsy Medley)

Evelyn Hoskins won the Rising Star Award and performed the title song from Carrie at the Southwark Playhouse earlier this year (which also won the Best Off-West End Show award). You can watch Evelyn’s first ever vlog all about what it was like to win an award below.

Composer Alexander Bermange saved the day by coming in with just one hours notice to musically direct the show (as my MD had to pull out 90 mins before the artists arrived for sound check!) I shall ever be in Alexander’s debt for saving the show.

Huge thanks to all my sponsors who supported this year’s awards. eStage, Applaud, R&H Theatricals Europe, Planet Hollywood, London Weekly News, SeatPlan and The Hippodrome Casino. Without their support it wouldn’t have been possible to create such a wonderful event.

West End Wilma Awards 2015

See more photos from the 2015 Wilma Awards here.

The third Wilma Awards will return around the same time in 2016 but I’m going to take a break from thinking about it for a few months and enjoy getting back on with my normal stagey lifestyle!

You can watch me presenting the final award of the ceremony for Best West End Show to Julie Legrand from Gypsy (I was the only one to mess up during the whole show!)

West End Wilma Presenting Best West End Show Award

I write this blog post from my seat at the English National Opera’s Sky Bar where I am waiting to see the legendary Glenn Close talk about her London return in Sunset Boulevard next year! I shall tell you more about that very soon!

Bye bye for now!

Wilma x
West End Wilma
www.westendwilma.com