And the winners are… CRITICS’ CIRCLE AWARDS 2026

Brendan Gleeson is away filming and sent a message of appreciation at being awarded Best Actor for his performance in The Weir and Rosamund Pike was beamed into the awards room from the Wyndhams Theatre where she was about to go on stage for a matinee performance of Inter Alia which has earned her the Best Actress award and a well-deserved West End transfer from the National Theatre.

Paapa Essiedu collected the award for Best Revival of a Play or Musical on behalf of the company which brought Arthur Miller’s All My Sons back to the West End and its director Ivo van Hove picked up the Best Director award. This year’s Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance went to Hayley Atwell who was up against stiff competition from among others, her co-star in Much Ado About Nothing, Tom Hiddleston. And two young women with assuredly glittering careers ahead of them, Ava Pickett and Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis won for Most Promising Playwright and Most Promising Newcomer respectively.

Full list of nominees and winners (in red) below:

THE MICHAEL BILLINGTON AWARD FOR BEST NEW PLAY

• STEREOPHONIC (Duke of York’s Theatre) — David Adjmi
• ROMANS A NOVEL (Almeida Theatre) — Alice Birch
• KENREX (The Other Palace) — Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian
• PUNCH (Young Vic / Apollo Theatre) — James Graham (from a book by Jacob Dunne)
• THE FIFTH STEP (@sohoplace) — David Ireland
• INTER ALIA (National Theatre) — Suzie Miller
• KYOTO (@sohoplace) — Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY OR MUSICAL

• ALL MY SONS (Wyndham’s Theatre)
• BRIGADOON (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park)
• EVITA (London Palladium)
• INTIMATE APPAREL (Donmar Warehouse)
• INTO THE WOODS (Bridge Theatre)
• INDIAN INK (Hampstead Theatre)
• THE WEIR (Harold Pinter Theatre)

THE PETER HEPPLE AWARD FOR BEST NEW MUSICAL

• CABLE STREET (Southwark Playhouse)
• HERE WE ARE (National Theatre)
• PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL (Savoy Theatre)
• SHUCKED (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park)
• SING STREET (Lyric Hammersmith)
• TITANIQUE (Criterion Theatre)

THE 5RB AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR

• STEREOPHONIC (Duke of York’s Theatre) — Daniel Aukin
• INTO THE WOODS (Bridge Theatre) — Jordan Fein
• INTIMATE APPAREL (Donmar Warehouse) — Lynette Linton
• EVITA (London Palladium) and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) — Jamie Lloyd
• PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL (Savoy Theatre) — Luke Sheppard
• ALL MY SONS (Wyndham’s Theatre) — Ivo van Hove

BEST ENSEMBLE OR CAST

• 1536 (Almeida Theatre)
• HERE WE ARE (National Theatre)
• INTO THE WOODS (Bridge Theatre)
• STEREOPHONIC (Duke of York’s Theatre)
• THE WEIR (Harold Pinter Theatre)
• WHEN WE ARE MARRIED (Donmar Warehouse)

MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT

• A GHOST IN YOUR EAR and AN INTERROGATION (both at Hampstead Theatre) — Jamie Armitage
• PORN PLAY (Royal Court) — Sophia Chetin-Leuner
• THE MEAT KINGS! (INC) OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS (Park Theatre) — Hannah Doran
• AFTER SUNDAY (Bush Theatre) — Sophia Griffin
• RAGDOLL (Jermyn Street Theatre) — Katherine Moar
• 1536 (Almeida Theatre) — Ava Pickett
• THE ESTATE (National Theatre) — Shaan Sahota

BEST ACTOR

• THE ESTATE (National Theatre) — Adeel Akhtar
• ALL MY SONS (Wyndham’s Theatre) — Bryan Cranston
• ALL MY SONS (Wyndham’s Theatre) — Paapa Essiedu
• THE WEIR (Harold Pinter Theatre) — Brendan Gleeson
• GOODNIGHT, OSCAR (Barbican Theatre) — Sean Hayes
• PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL (Savoy Theatre) — James Hameed & Arti Shah
• PUNCH (Young Vic / Apollo Theatre) — David Shields

THE NLP AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS

• INTO THE WOODS (Bridge Theatre) — Kate Fleetwood
• PUNCH (Young Vic / Apollo Theatre) — Julie Hesmondhalgh
• ALL MY SONS (Wyndham’s Theatre) — Marianne Jean-Baptiste
• INTER ALIA (National Theatre) — Rosamund Pike
• THE UNBELIEVERS (Royal Court) — Nicola Walker
• INTIMATE APPAREL (Donmar Warehouse) — Samira Wiley
• EVITA (The London Palladium) — Rachel Zegler

BEST DESIGNER

• KYOTO (@sohoplace) and THE LAND OF THE LIVING (National Theatre) — Miriam Buether
• THE LADY FROM THE SEA (The Bridge) — Lizzie Clachan
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHIING (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and EVITA (The London Palladium) — Soutra Gilmour
• PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL (Savoy Theatre) — Tom Pye
• INTO THE WOODS (Bridge Theatre) — Tom Scutt
• STEREOPHONIC (Duke of York’s) and HERE WE ARE (National Theatre) — David Zinn

THE TREWIN AWARD FOR BEST SHAKESPEAREAN PERFORMANCE

• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) — Hayley Atwell
• RICHARD II (Bridge Theatre) — Jonathan Bailey
• OTHELLO (Theatre Royal Haymarket) — David Harewood
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) — Tom Hiddleston
• HAMLET (National Theatre) — Francesca Mills
• TWELFTH NIGHT (Barbican) — Samuel West

THE JACK TINKER AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER (SPONSORED BY FINITO)

• THE LADY FROM THE SEA (The Bridge) — Isobel Akuwudike
• INDIAN INK (Hampstead Theatre) — Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis
• SECOND BEST (Riverside Studios) — Asa Butterfield
• THE WEIR (Harold Pinter Theatre) — Kate Phillips
• EVITA (The London Palladium) — Diego Andres Rodriguez
• INTER ALIA (National Theatre) — Jasper Talbot
• THE LAND OF THE LIVING (National Theatre) — Artie Wilkinson-Hunt

EMPTY SPACE… PETER BROOK AWARD (IN MEMORY OF BLANCHE MARVIN)

• ORANGE TREE THEATRE by Fiona Mountford – Chief Theatre Critic, The I Paper
• RED ROSE CHAIN, Ipswich by Dominic Cavendish – Chief Theatre Critic, The Telegraph
• ROYAL COURT UPSTAIRS by Andrzej Lukowski – Theatre & Dance Editor, Uk, Time Out Media
• THE OTHER PALACE STUDIO by Mark Shenton – Editor, Shentonstage Theatre Newsletter
• WONDER FOOLS by Lyn Gardner – Associate Editor, The Stage

Congratulations from all of us at London Box Office, to all the nominees and winners.

Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis with our Head Reviewer Stuart King.