follows four blue-collar boys &ndash Gaudio, Frankie Valli and their friends Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi &ndash on their journey from the wrong side
of the tracks in New Jersey to global success as a pop music sensation. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide &ndash all before they were 30. Two other musicals score double Theatregoers’ Choice wins. The 50th anniversary production of West Side Story, now touring the UK following its sell-out run at Sadler’s Wells in London, nets Best Musical Revival and Best Actress in a Musical for its Portuguese “Maria” . And La Cage aux Folles, still running at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre where Graham Norton has recently joined the cast, scoops Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Tracie Bennett, winning the prize for a second year in a row, last year for Hairspray) and Best Choreographer (Lynne Page). Another comedy, Joanna Murray-Smith’s UK premiere of The Female of the Species, earns Best Supporting Actress for her turn as the put-upon daughter of Eileen Atkins’ Germaine Greer-style feminist icon.
Amongst the winners, nominees and other VIPs due at the Prince of Wales tonight are: Anthony Clark, Daniel Koek, Denise Gough, Douglas Hodge, Edward Bennett, Elizabeth McGovern (currently starring in Complicit at the Old Vic), Ella Smith, Gregory Doran, Jayde Westaby, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Page, Katy Stephens, Kerry Michael, Kevin R McNally, Lesley Sharp, Lesli Margherita, Linda Thorson, Lisa O’Hare, Lorraine Bruce, Lucy Briers, Lynne Page, Malcolm Rippeth, Malcolm Sinclair, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (currently starring in A View from the Bridge), Matt Rawle, Matthew Bourne, Michael Boyd, Micheal Grandage, Michelle Terry, Natalie Walter, Neil LaBute, Nick Reed, Nick Cavaliere, Nicole Faraday, Patina Miller (the new star of the forthcoming musical Sister Act), Phil Willmott, Pip Carter, Rachel Tucker, Rafael Armago, former Kinks frontman Ray Davies, Robyn North, Roger Davies, Rolan Bell, Rupert Goold, Shaun Niles, Sheila Hancock, Simon Curtis, Sofia Escobar, Sophie Thompson, Steven Berkoff, Suzanne Shaw, Terry Johnson, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Piper, David Eldridge, Klara Zieglerova and Tracie Bennett.