Spring Awakening and Broadway-Bound Enron Nominated for U.K.'s TMA Awards

By Mark Shenton
01 Oct 2009

Lucy Prebble's Enron, which originated at Chichester's Minerva Theatre and is currently playing at London's Royal Court en route to the West End (where it will open at the Noel Coward Theatre in January 2010) and Broadway (where it will open at a Shubert theatre in April), has been nominated for Best New Play in the 2009 TMA Awards.

Also nominated in the same category are Chris Goode's King Pelican, seen at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and Fraser Grace's The Lifesavers, seen at Colchester's Mercury. Samuel West, who plays Jeffrey Skiling in Enron, is nominated for the Best Performance in a Play Award, with nominations also for Anna Francolini, Irene Macdougall and Marc Warren for performances in regional productions of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Pillowman, respectively.

Spring Awakening, which premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith before transferring briefly to the West End's Novello Theatre, is in contention for Best Musical, alongside the Watermill, Newbury's production of Spend Spend Spend and the tour of West Side Story presented by the Ambassadors Theatre Group.

The TMA Theatre Awards are presented annually by the Theatrical Management Association, the major trade association for organizations and individuals involved professionally in the production and presentation of the middle and large-scale performing arts in the U.K. There are also awards for Best Director, Best Supporting Performance in a Play, Best Performance in a Musical, Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Best Set Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Show for Children and Young People, Best Touring Production, Achievement in Opera, Achievement In Dance and Special Achievement in Regional Theatre.

In a press statement, Derek Nicholls, president of the TMA said, "Each year the TMA Theatre Awards illustrate and celebrate the strength and breadth of talent seen in UK theatres. The quality of this work is already well known to enthusiastic audiences from Dundee to Plymouth and Salisbury to Belfast. I am pleased that the TMA Theatre Awards provide national recognition of this artistic and creative excellence."

The awards will be presented at a ceremony, hosted by Nichola McAuliffe, at Lyric Hammersmith on Nov. 1.

For a full list of the nominees, visit www.tmauk.org.