{"id":359517,"date":"2026-03-26T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/359517\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:30:07","slug":"brendan-gleeson-wins-best-actor-as-critics-circle-theatre-awards-toasts-the-weir-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/359517\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Gleeson wins best actor as Critics\u2019 Circle theatre awards toasts The Weir | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brendan Gleeson has been named best actor at the Critics\u2019 Circle<\/a> theatre awards for his West End debut in Conor McPherson\u2019s pub drama The Weir<\/a>. He beat fellow nominees including Bryan Cranston and Paapa Essiedu, both recognised for All My Sons, and James Hameed and Arti Shah, the duo who together portray Paddington in the new musical about Michael Bond\u2019s bear. The Weir, directed by McPherson, was entirely omitted from the nominations for this year\u2019s Olivier awards<\/a> and is being turned into a film with Gleeson and the rest of the West End cast.<\/p>\n

All My Sons<\/a>, a critically adored production of Arthur Miller\u2019s 1946 classic at Wyndham\u2019s theatre, won in two categories at the Critics\u2019 Circle awards: best revival of a play or musical and best director for Ivo van Hove. A new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine\u2019s Into the Woods<\/a>, directed by Jordan Fein at the Bridge theatre, also won two prizes \u2013 best designer (Tom Scutt) and the inaugural award for best ensemble or cast.<\/p>\n

The winners, voted for by professional theatre critics, were revealed at a ceremony at the National Theatre in London on Thursday. Paddington: The Musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher and book by Jessica Swale, won best new musical. James Graham\u2019s Punch, based on the real story of a fatal blow, received the Michael Billington award for best new play (named in 2019<\/a> in honour of the Guardian\u2019s theatre critic after he stepped down from reviewing). Ava Pickett won most promising playwright for her Tudor drama 1536, which was staged at the Almeida theatre in London in 2025<\/a>, transfers to the West End in May and is being turned into a BBC drama series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chumisa Dornford-May and Katie Brayben in Into the Woods at the Bridge theatre. Photograph: Tristram Kenton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Rosamund Pike saw off competition from Kate Fleetwood (Into the Woods), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (All My Sons) and Rachel Zegler (Evita) to win best actress for her acclaimed performance as a judge in Suzie Miller\u2019s Inter Alia<\/a>. Ruby Ashbourne Serkis was named most promising newcomer for her performance in a revival of Tom Stoppard\u2019s Indian Ink which opened at Hampstead theatre days after the revered playwright\u2019s death. The award for best Shakespearean performance went to Hayley Atwell for her Beatrice (alongside Tom Hiddleston, nominated for the same prize, as Benedick) in Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The Palladium production of Evita, which was nominated in five categories, missed out on an award, as did the play Stereophonic (which had four nominations).<\/p>\n

Guardian journalist Mark Lawson, 2026 chair of the Critics\u2019 Circle drama section, said that, in \u201can attempt to extend the range of work considered\u201d, it was the first year that members voted from longlists and shortlists. \u201cSome categories were won by a landslide, but others were tight five- or six-way contests eventually decided after a recount, suggesting strong quality among the quantity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023 the Critics\u2019 Circle announced that it would incorporate the Empty Space Peter Brook award, founded by Blanche Marvin, as one of its categories. Marvin died earlier this year at the age of 100 and the award, which recognises an innovative venue, has been renamed in her memory. This year\u2019s winner, decided by a separate panel of critics chosen by the Marvin family, is the not-for-profit theatre company Red Rose Chain<\/a> in Ipswich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan Gleeson has been named best actor at the Critics\u2019 Circle theatre awards for his West End debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-359517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}