Skip to content

Stage Debut Awards: Aidan Turner and Bryan Cranston among nominees

Jan Versweyveld/Johan Persson Bryan Cranston and Aidan TurnerJan Versweyveld/Johan Persson
Bryan Cranston and Aidan Turner are both among the nominees

Aidan Turner and Bryan Cranston are among those nominated for this year's Stage Debut Awards.

Both actors are up for the best West End debut award, with the eventual winner being voted for by the public.

Adrienne Warren, who plays the lead in The Tina Turner Musical and Diversity's Ashley Banjo are also up for the prize.

The awards recognise outstanding debut stage performances over the past year with winners revealed at a ceremony in central London on 23 September.

Manuel Harlan Adrienne WarrenManuel Harlan
Tony award-winning stage actress Adrienne Warren made her debut in the West End in April

This is the second Stage Debut Awards ceremony, following the inaugural event in 2017.

Last year's event saw The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sells win best composer for Everybody's Talking About Jamie, while 25-year old Katherine Soper was named best writer for her debut play Wish List.

The awards are put on by the Stage, the theatre newspaper and website, to celebrate breakthrough talent from actors, directors, designers, writers, composers and lyricists - all of whom must have made their professional stage debuts in the past year.

Poldark's Aidan Turner made his inaugural West End appearance last month in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, playing Mad Padraic - a terrorist deemed too violent to be a member of the IRA - with one critic describing him as a "revelation".

Johan Persson Aidan TurnerJohan Persson
Aidan Turner has an affinity for cats but not people in The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Bryan Cranston, meanwhile, made his "compelling" debut in November - playing deranged news anchor, Howard Beale, in Ivo van Hove's staging of Network.

The shortlist and eventual winners of the awards are decided on by a judging panel, which met at the end of July.

There is one category in which the general public can vote for the winner from a shortlist of nominees - the Joe Allen Best West End Debut award.

Lyn Gardner, associate editor at the Stage, said: "It feels both genuinely celebratory and useful to recognise people's talent at the start of their careers.

Getty Images Ashley BanjoGetty Images
Ashley Banjo, part of dance troupe Diversity, is among the nominees

"There are plenty of awards which heap praise on the already successful, but the Stage Debut Awards are unique in giving a helping hand to those joining the profession. It has been a privilege to be part of the team helping to select the winners."

The Stage unveiled the full list of nominees on Thursday. The nominees for the Joe Allen Best West End Debut prize are:

  • Mohammad Amiri for The Jungle at the Playhouse Theatre
  • Ashley Banjo for Dick Whittington at the London Palladium
  • Bryan Cranston for Network at the National Theatre
  • Michelle Greenidge for Nine Night at the National Theatre
  • John McCrea for Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre
  • Kelli O'Hara for The King and I at the London Palladium
  • Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy for The Jungle at the Playhouse Theatre
  • Lucie Shorthouse for Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre
  • Aidan Turner for The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Noel Coward Theatre
  • Adrienne Warren for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at the Aldwych Theatre
Presentational grey line

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].