CityLife

thatre awards

BRITAIN'S most prestigious showbiz awards outside London drew top-drawer stage and screen stars like Nigel Havers, Barbara Dickson and Barry Foster to present the silver theatrical mask awards.

The star-studded 20th Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards - was recognised by both Prince Edward and culture secretary Tessa Jowell as a major curtain raiser for the Queen's Golden Jubilee Year games.

In a video message to a glittering assembly of stage and screen stars at the Manchester Airport-sponsored awards at Manchester's Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel, the Queen's youngest son paid glowing tribute to the 25th birthday of the city's ground-breaking Royal Exchange Theatre, the re-birth of which ? after sustaining grievous damage in the IRA bomb attack ? has been acclaimed by actors and producers alike. Prince Edward's message highlighted the uniqueness of the Royal

Exchange's theatre in the round and praised its reincarnation as

"absolutely spectacular" and a "fantastic space" in which great talent

had been nurtured and developed.

But it wasn't just the space that had impressed the MEN Awards judges ?

drawn from the region's critical elite ? as the accolades were dispensed

yesterday over a lunchtime celebration compered by actor and comedian

John Thomson.

The company scooped five top awards including the Best Actress

performance by Helen Schlesinger in A Moon For The Misbegotten and Uncle

Vanya and Best Actor for Adam Sims' role in the gothic murder drama

Snake In Fridge, a play which itself took three awards ? Best

Production, Best New Play and Sims' part in it. But this year's awards

were spread across Greater Manchester with the Lowry repeating its

success of last year, picking up the dance accolade for its staging of

Birmingham Royal Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker, Best Visiting

Production for the Pilot Theatre Company's Lord Of The Flies and the

Comedy Award for Dave Gorman's Are You Dave Gorman?

The ceremony was a triumph, too, for Bolton's Octagon Theatre,

traditional theatrical grounding for many of today's television stars.

From numerous nominations the Octagon came up tops for productions in

which Mary Cunningham (Woman In Mind) and Warren Katz (The Price) took

Best Actress and Best Actor in Supporting Roles respectively.

The richness of theatrical talent was also recognised by awards to

productions at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Contact Theatre,

the Library Theatre and the Oldham Coliseum.

And you, the readers of the Manchester Evening News, had a major say

too, naming celebrated actress Amanda Donohoe's role in the Royal

Exchange's Hedda Gabler as Performance of the Year. You were also wowed

by Georgia Taylor's moving portrayal of Coronation Street's Toyah

Battersby and Steven Pinder's role as Max Farnham in Brookside, voted by

readers as the Best Actress and Best Actor in British Soaps.

But it was perhaps Arlene Phillips award for her choreography in Best

Musical ? Saturday Night Fever at the Opera House ? that provided the

most pertinent link between Manchester's theatrical prowess and the

sporting feast to come.

The Salford-born brains behind the late Kenny Everett's "naughty bits" ?

Hot Gossip ? revealed that she will be masterminding the steps of 5,000

dancers at the opening and closing ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games.

Will there be basques, stocking-tops and suspenders unveiled before the

Queen? She said: "You'll have to wait and see. It's a tremendously

exciting project I've been working on for several months already. I have

worked with 300 dancers for a film but you can multiply and multiply

that. It's an absolutely incredible challenge and I'm proud to be a

local who's doing it."