Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2017: Vote for your favourite for the Best Musical award

Broadway has traditionally been talked about as the world’s home of musical theatre but every year London stakes a stronger and stronger claim to the title. This year has, delightfully, continued this trend, with an abundance of musical riches all over the capital, from small-scale treats at high-achieving fringe venues such as the Menier Chocolate Factory and Southwark Playhouse, to the all-out, big-hitting triumphs of the West End.

It is therefore a great pleasure to announce that voting is now open for this year’s Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical, the winner of which will be decided by you, the readers, the listeners, the theatre-lovers. The competition was launched this weekend by Elaine Paige on her Sunday radio show and voting will close at 11.59pm on October 29. The winner will be revealed at our star-studded awards ceremony on December 3, venue to be announced. You can cast your vote now at bbc.co.uk/radio2.

A shortlist of seven has been drawn up by the Evening Standard Advisory Judging Panel. Allow us to remind you of the many pleasures of our seven shortlisted musicals, an enticing cocktail of new shows and revivals of classics of the art form.

An American in Paris

Dominion, W1

Fans of Vincente Minnelli’s swirlingly romantic 1951 film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron have been charmed by ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s luscious, life-affirming stage adaptation. Dripping with melodious George Gershwin numbers, the show continues to enchant big crowds at the large-capacity Dominion. Bob Crowley’s witty designs delight in their evocations of an unfurling post-war Paris and are guaranteed to make everyone take a longing look at the Eurostar website. Dancers — Royal Ballet star Leanne Cope proves irresistible as Lise — become notable performers of musical theatre. In his review Evening Standard’s Henry Hitchings said that the show “mixes grace and elegance with jazzy verve”.

Until Jan 6, Dominion, W1 (0845 200 7982, anamericaninparisthemusical.co.uk)

Bat Out of Hell

Coliseum, WC2

The “Meat Loaf musical”, as it swiftly and fondly became known, wowed audiences at the stately Coliseum this summer. It commemorated the 40th anniversary of the release of the eponymous album of composer Jim Steinman’s songs, one of the best-selling of all time. In his review, Henry Hitchings praised the “jaw-dropping spectacle” of this “unapologetically thunderous” musical and there was near-universal acclaim for the performance of young American actor Andrew Polec as the charismatic Strat. In echoes of JM Barrie, Strat is the leader of a group of rebellious teenagers called The Lost and he falls in love with Raven, the daughter of a sinister overlord. JM Barrie, Romeo and Juliet, Meat Loaf and some very loud songs: who could imagine a more delicious combination?

Dreamgirls

Savoy, WC2

Casey Nicholaw’s glittering production arrived in the West End just before Christmas last year like a glorious early present and has proved to be the gift that keeps on giving to eager audiences. This 1981 musical from Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen, best known on this side of the Atlantic until now in the form of the 2006 film starring Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, tells of the tribulations of a Supremes-style girl group hungry for fame. The piece’s focus is on the Dreamettes’ “plus-sized” lead singer Effie White, played to shattering effect by the magnificently voiced Amber Riley, well known for her work on television in Glee. In his five-star review, Henry Hitchings called the show “dazzling… lavish and richly emotional”.

Until Feb 10, Savoy, WC2 (0844 871 7687, dreamgirlswestend.com)

Follies

National’s Olivier, SE1

Dominic Cooke’s shimmeringly elegant production of Stephen Sondheim’s classic about love and showbusiness — it includes those anthemic actors’ songs Broadway Baby and I’m Still Here — and the delusions and disappointments of both is currently dazzling audiences on the South Bank. National-treasure-in-waiting Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee play the leads, two women who have been buffeted about by life and marriage in the decades since their time as showgirls in the glamorous Weismann Follies. Vicki Mortimer’s design of the backstage area at a crumbling Broadway theatre is an expansive masterpiece of understated melancholy. As Henry Hitchings astutely pointed out, “instead of a plot there’s a mood — wistfulness tinged with both pain and wit”. It is, he concluded, a “genuinely fascinating study of the dangers of nostalgia”.

Until Jan 3, National’s Olivier, SE1 (020 7452 3000, nationaltheatre.org.uk). Also NT Live broadcast on Nov 16

School of Rock

New London, WC2

The 2003 film starring Jack Black as Dewey, the guitar-wielding supply teacher of children’s dreams and parents’ nightmares, was a riot of fun, which has now transferred to the stage in this new musical version from Andrew Lloyd Webber and book writer Julian Fellowes. The previously calm corridors of prestigious and snooty school Horace Green suddenly and incongruously resound to the strains of pop music. This is created live onstage by some astonishingly talented actor-musician children, some of whom are barely taller than the instruments they play as they, to quote Dewey’s catchphrase, “stick it to the man”. Henry Hitchings praised the show in his review as “fresh and charming… loud and cheeky, a feelgood experience with a hint of anarchic wildness”.

Until Jan 2019, New London, WC2 (0844 412 4654, schoolof rockthemusical.com)

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ — The Musical

​Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1

What a tonic it is to be able to welcome that rarest of creatures, a peppy and hugely successful new British musical. This tweaked version of Leicester Curve’s musical adaptation of Sue Townsend’s bestselling novel saw the nation’s favourite angst-ridden, intellectual teenager and his gang, spring to glorious life courtesy of Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary, in a show full of unstoppably hummable songs. Adrian’s family and romantic lives might have been crumbling around him, but there was always time to pen a letter to the BBC. The young actors playing the leads in Luke Sheppard’s production were sensational, with Benjamin Lewis as Master Mole himself the “beating heart of a warmly appealing bulletin from more innocent times”, as I described it in my five-star review. We will surely be hearing more from him in the West End — and soon.

She Loves Me

​Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1

Sometimes the gods of perfect timing smile on a piece of theatre and all is blissful. So it proved for this revival of the playful and romantic 1963 musical from Fiddler on the Roof’s Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Set in a perfume shop in the run-up to Christmas, the production craftily opened in early December and left wistful Londoners wishing that they too could do their Christmas shopping in Mr Maraczek’s colourful and elegant emporium, where warring shop assistants Amalia and Georg eventually bond over a tub of vanilla ice cream. Sweetly sung and impeccably staged, this was a rare but cherishable example of theatre doing a romcom, and doing it exquisitely. In my five-star review I said that it showed the Menier, with two nominations for this year’s R2 Audience Award for Best Musical, was a “gloriously over-achieving small venue surpassing itself”.

Voting

Choose your favourite show for the Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical at bbc.co.uk/radio2. Voting closes at 11.59pm on October 29.

The winner will be announced live at the 63rd Evening Standard Theatre Awards on December 3 and Radio 2’s Elaine Paige and Ken Bruce will be broadcasting backstage from the awards.The full shortlist for the awards will be revealed in November.

For more information on the awards, go to standard.co.uk/ESTA2017