2024 Sydney Theatre Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2024 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced tonight at a star-studded ceremony, with 28 Awards presented, shared between 16 productions which played on Sydney stages during 2024. Almost 500 members of the Sydney theatre community gathered at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre to celebrate.

Best Mainstage Production was awarded to Belvoir’s August: Osage County, which also took home Best
Direction of a Mainstage Production for Eamon Flack, and Best Performance in a Leading Role in a Mainstage Production for both Tamsin Carroll and Pamela Rabe (tied vote).

Best Independent Production went to The Inheritance from Shane Anthony, Daniel Cottier Productions, Sugary Rum Productions and Seymour Centre, which was also awarded Best Direction of an Independent Production (Shane Anthony) and Best Ensemble Cast. Best Performance in a Leading Role in an Independent Production was given to André de Vanny (The Lonesome West).

Best Musical was presented to Zombie! The Musical (Hayes Theatre Co), whose director Darren Yap was awarded Best Direction of a Musical. The Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance in a Leading Role in a Musical went to Michael Paynter (Jesus Christ Superstar). Daniel R. Nixon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) took home Best Newcomer, and Best New Australian Work was awarded to Emmanuelle Mattana for Trophy Boys.

The Award for Lifetime Achievement was presented to veteran theatre and opera director Jim Sharman, who has more than 70 productions to his credit. After graduating from NIDA in 1966, he created a series of productions of experimental theatre, many for the Old Tote Theatre Company, culminating in a controversial staging of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Opera Australia when he was 21 years old.

Over the following decade, he directed three revolutionary rock musicals: Hair in 1969 (Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Boston), Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972 (Australia, London) and created the original production of The Rocky Horror Show with Richard O’Brien in 1973 (Royal Court Theatre, London; then Sydney, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York).

Jim co-wrote the screenplay of and directed the international cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show and directed its loosely based sequel, Shock Treatment. In the following decades, he directed a series of radical stagings of classics and premieres of new work by major Australian dramatists, including Louis Nowra, Stephen Sewell and Patrick White.

Presenters at the Awards ceremony, which was hosted by Marney McQueen, included Neil Armfield, Mary Rachel Brown, Matt Cox, Lena Cruz, Margi de Ferranti, Kate Fitzpatrick, Remi Hii, Leah Howard, Max Lambert, Kris Nelson, Tim Omaji, Lauren Peters, Dorje Swallow, Brian Thomson, Hannah Waterman and Dalara Williams.

The ceremony opened with a performance of Seasons of Love featuring past cast members of many productions of Rent, and featured a performance by Ryan Gonzalez of Ride On from the new Australian musical Phar Lap.

It also included a celebration of musicals directed by Jim Sharman by original cast members – Jesus Christ Superstar (Marcia Hines), Hair (John Waters) and The Rocky Horror Show (Nell Campbell, Maureen Elkner, Kate Fitzpatrick, Sal Sharah).

The Sydney Theatre Awards are presented annually to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney. The Sydney Theatre Awards gratefully thanks major sponsor The Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation, as well as other sponsors: William Fletcher Foundation, Showcast, Currency Press, Ticketmaster, Actors Benevolent Fund, JPJ Audio, Lisa Loxley Design, Helen Constance and the Seymour Centre.

WINNERS OF 2024 SYDNEY THEATRE AWARDS

---

For more information click HERE