2013 SYDNEY THEATRE AWARDS

Independent Theatre Company Sport for Jove’s Cyrano de Bergerac and musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels were the big winners of the evening at the 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards with three awards a piece. Cyrano took out three awards including Best Production, Best Director and Best Male Actor in the Indie categories, while Dirty Rotten Scoundrels scooped the small pool of three categories for musicals.

Best Mainstage production went to the Sydney Theatre Company production of Waiting for Godot, in an evening where awards were spread across a range of productions and companies. 

The theme of the awards, presented at the Paddington RSL Club on January 20 was family. The evening began with Sondheim’s ‘Old Friends' performed by six members of the Sydney Music Theatre family.

Presenters carried the theme through, with theatrical sibings and partners doing the honours. Presenters at the Awards ceremony included Anni Finsterer, Jack Finsterer, Blazey Best, Luke McGettigan, Jennifer Hagan, Ron Blair, Meredith Penman, Iain Sinclair, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Scott Johnson, Richard Cottrell, John Turnbull, Marion Potts and Ned Manning.

An augmented Wharf Revue team celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the Opera House, before the award genre defying Wharf Revue and its creators were recognized with a special award for “services to laughter, satire and sanity, above and beyond the call of duty”.

Playwright John Romeril was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement award in a year when Griffin’s new production of his classic The Floating World also took out two major gongs.

THE AWARDS

BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

Waiting for Godot (Sydney Theatre Company)

BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Cyrano de Bergerac (Sport for Jove) 

BEST DIRECTION OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

Sam Strong (The Floating World) 

BEST DIRECTION OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Damien Ryan (Cyrano de Bergerac)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Harriet Dyer (Machinal)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Peter Kowitz (The Floating World)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLEIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Toni Scanlan (All My Sons)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLEIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Yalin Ozucelik (Cyrano de Bergerac)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Susan Prior (Small and Tired)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Luke Mullins (Waiting for Godot)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLEIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Eloise Winestock (The Comedy of Errors)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLEIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Damien Ryan (Othello)

BEST STAGE DESIGN IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Gabriela Tylesova (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Gabriela Tylesova (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

BEST LIGHTING DESIGNIN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Verity Hampson (Machinal)

BEST SCORE OR SOUND DESIGN IN A MAINSTREAM PRODUCTION

Elena Kats-Chernin and Daryl Wallis (Frankenstein)

BEST STAGE DESIGNIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Marg Horwell (Summertime in the Garden of Eden)

BEST COSTUME DESIGNIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Marg Horwell (Summertime in the Garden of Eden)

BEST SCORE OR SOUND DESIGNIN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION

Benny Davis and Alister Mew (Delectable Shelter)

BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK

Andrew Bovell (The Secret River)

BEST NEWCOMER

Elizabeth Debicki (The Maids)

BEST PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Katrina Retallick (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Matt Hetherington (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN

The Listies in 6D (Sydney Opera House)

BEST PRODUCTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

School Dance (Windmill Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company in association with Sydney Festival)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Playwright John Romeril 

Full list of nominations

The Sydney Theatre Awards are run by a group of leading theatre critics to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney. The Sydney Theatre Reviewers are Elissa Blake (Sun Herald), Jason Blake (Sydney Morning Herald), Deborah Jones (The Australian), Jo Litson (Sunday Telegraph), John McCallum (The Australian), John Shand (Sydney Morning Herald), Diana Simmonds (Stagenoise website). Polly Simons (Daily Telegraph) and Brad Syke (Crikey).

The Sydney Theatre Awards gratefully thank sponsors Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation, Industrie, Showcast, Currency Press, William Fletcher Foundation, Ticketmaster, Bellbird Cottages, stagenoise, Hayes Theatre Co, ACMN and Blueprint Studios.