The Chichester revival of Sweeney Todd that transferred to the Adelphi was named Best Musical, and Nick Payne's Constellations, now newly transferred to the Duke of York's from the Royal Court, was named Best Play.

Special awards were made to Nicholas Hytner (receiving the Lebedev Special Award "for his dynamic directorship of the National Theatre"), David Hare (the Editor's Award "for his contribution to theatre"), Danny Boyle and his team (a Beyond Theatre Award for the opening ceremony of the Olympics) and Judi Dench (Moscow Art Theatre's Golden Seagull).

Another special award was made to Royal Court associate director Simon Godwin, receiving the Burberry Award for Emerging Director. In the nominated categories, other newcomers honored were Lolita Chakrabarti (winning the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright) and Matthew Tennyson (winning the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer). Soutra Gilmour won the award for Best Design.

The full list of nominees and winners are shown below in the contested categories, with winners in bold:

Best Play
*Constellations by Nick Payne (Royal Court Upstairs)
Love and Information by Caryl Churchill  (Royal Court Downstairs)
This House by James Graham (National’s Cottesloe)
  Best Director
*Nicholas Hytner for Timon of Athens (National's Olivier)
Carrie Cracknell for A Doll's House (Young Vic)
James Macdonald for Love and Information (Royal Court Downstairs)
Ian Rickson for Hamlet (Young Vic)
 

Best Actor
*Simon Russell Beale, Collaborators (National's Cottesloe and Olivier)
Charles Edwards, The King's Speech (Wyndham's) and This House  (National's Cottesloe)
Adrian Lester, Red Velvet (Tricycle Theatre)
Luke Treadaway, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National Cottesloe)

Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress
*Hattie Morahan, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)
Eileen Atkins, All That Fall (Jermyn Street)
Cate Blanchett, Big and Small (Sydney Theatre Company for Barbican)
Laurie Metcalf, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Apollo)
 

Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
*Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)
Singin' In the Rain (Chichester Festival and Palace Theatre)
Swallows and Amazons (A Bristol Old Vic production, presented by the National Theatre and The Children’s Touring Partnership at the Vaudeville Theatre)
 

Best Design
*Soutra Gilmour, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse) and Antigone (National's Olivier)
Miriam Buether, Wild Swans (A Young Vic/American Repertory Theatre/Actors Touring Company co-production)
Ian MacNeil, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)

Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright
*Lolita Chakrabarti, Red Velvet (Tricycle)
John Hodge, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)
Tom Wells, The Kitchen Sink (Bush)

Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer
*Matthew Tennyson, Making Noise Quietly (Donmar Warehouse)
Denise Gough, Our New Girl (Bush) and Desire Under the Elms (Lyric Hammersmith)
Abby Rakic-Platt, Vera Vera Vera (Royal Court Upstairs and Theatre Local Peckham)

The judging panel for the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2012 in association with Burberry includes Henry Hitchings (London Evening Standard), Georgina Brown (Mail on Sunday), Susannah Clapp (The Observer), Libby Purves (The Times), Charles Spencer (The Daily Telegraph), Matt Wolf (The International Herald Tribune) and the London Evening Standard's Editor, Sarah Sands; with London Evening Standard Owner, Evgeny Lebedev, chairing the judges meeting.