Evening Standard Theatre Awards live blog: All the action as it happened

All the action as it happened from the annual event to celebrate the best of this year's stage talent
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Stars of stage and screen gathered for the Evening Standard’s Theatre Awards with Gillian Anderson, Salma Hayek, Dominic West, Joely Richardson and Ralph Fiennes helping winners celebrate.

The event, now in its 61st year, celebrated the best of the capital’s theatre and nominees include Nicole Kidman, Denise Gough, Gemma Arterton, Natalie Dew, Simon Russell Beale and James McAvoy.

X-Files star Anderson, who won best actress last year for A Streetcar Named Desire, presented the best actor award to James McAvoy.

Four-time winner Russell Beale’s performance in Temple was up against Kenneth Cranham for The Father, Fiennes for Man And Superman and McAvoy for The Ruling Class.

All the action from the Evening Standard Theatre Awards as it happens:

Hollywood star Hayek presented the best play award, which saw The Father, written by Florian Zeller and translated by Christopher Hampton go up against Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen and The Motherf**ker With The Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Jeremy Irons presented the best actress award. The category featured rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw for her portrayal of Nell Gwynn at Shakespeare’s Globe, as well as Oscar-winner Kidman, who played scientist Rosalind Franklin in Photograph 51, Gough for People, Places And Things and Lia Williams for Oresteia.

The Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2015

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Other stars taking part in the Old Vic ceremony included Dame Shirley Bassey, Jessica Brown Findlay, Ruth Wilson, designer Christian Louboutin, and Alex Sharp, who won a Tony award for his Broadway performance in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.

He presented the award for most promising playwright and is looking forward to being reunited with Kidman — his co-star in forthcoming film How To Talk To Girls At Parties. He said: “I went to see Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51 and she was fantastic. We’ve been rehearsing scenes from the film backstage at the theatre in her dressing room which is a bit strange.”

West End veteran Elaine Paige presented the Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical, while Imelda Staunton’s turn in Gypsy won the new category for best musical performance. She was up against Katie Brayben, star of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Rosalie Craig from City Of Angels and Kinky Boots’ Killian Donnelly. Arterton won the newcomer in a musical award, presented by Jeremy Irvine and Gemma Chan, against High Society’s Ellie Bamber and Dew from Bend It Like Beckham.

The awards ceremony, held in partnership with The Ivy restaurant, was hosted by Rob Brydon and co-hosted by Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen. #ESTheatreAwards

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