In addition to the eight shortlisted awards below, a further five special awards will be presented on the night. These are the Burberry Award for Emerging Director (new for this year), the Lebedev Special Award, the Editor’s Award, the Beyond Theatre Award and the Moscow Art Theatre's Golden Seagull.



In a press statement, Sarah Sands, editor of the London Evening Standard, commented, "This year's shortlist serves to remind what is so great about London's theatre — new plays by young writers, classic drama re-imagined in the most exciting ways and a host of unforgettable performances.  We simply wouldn't be a world city without this jewel in our cultural crown — it deserves the Standard's recognition with these Awards."

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
Carrie Cracknell for A Doll's House (Young Vic)
Nicholas Hytner for Timon of Athens (National's Olivier)
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
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)
Hattie Morahan, A Doll's House (Young Vic)

Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
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)
Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)

Best Design
Miriam Buether, Wild Swans (A Young Vic/American Repertory Theatre/Actors Touring Company co-production)
Soutra Gilmour, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse) and Antigone (National's Olivier)
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
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)
Matthew Tennyson, Making Noise Quietly (Donmar Warehouse)

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.