Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director | |
Awarded For: | Best Director |
Presenter: | Society of London Theatre |
Year: | 1976 |
Holder: | Jamie Lloyd for Sunset Boulevard (2024) |
The Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
Introduced in 1976 as the award for Best Director, it was renamed in 2018 in honor of acclaimed theatre director Sir Peter Hall, beginning with the 2019 award ceremony.[1]
In 1991, the category was briefly retired and divided into the categories Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical. These two categories were in turn retired in 1995, and the Best Director award was reinstated.
Robert Icke became the Best Director award's youngest ever winner in 2016; Deborah Warner, the 1988 recipient, had previously been the youngest winner.
Only five women have ever won the award: Deborah Warner, Marianne Elliott, Lyndsey Turner, Miranda Cromwell, and Rebecca Frecknall.
Year | Director | Production |
---|---|---|
1976 | ||
Jonathan Miller | Three Sisters | |
Alan Ayckbourn | Confusions, Shakespeare's People and Yahoo | |
Buzz Goodbody | Occupations and King Lear | |
Terry Hands | Old World and Henry IV (parts 1 and 2 and Henry V) | |
1977 | ||
Clifford Williams | Wild Oats | |
Michael Blakemore | Privates on Parade | |
Bernard Miles | The Fire that Consumes | |
Trevor Nunn | Macbeth | |
1978 | ||
Terry Hands | Henry VI | |
Bill Bryden and Sebastian Graham-Jones | Lark Rise | |
Christopher Morahan | The Philanderer | |
Harold Prince | Evita | |
1979 | ||
Michael Bogdanov | The Taming of the Shrew | |
Michael Elliott | The Family Reunion | |
Trevor Nunn | Once in a Lifetime | |
Michael Rudman | Death of a Salesman |
Year | Director | Production |
---|---|---|
1996 | ||
Sam Mendes | Company and The Glass Menagerie | |
Richard Eyre | Skylight and La Grande Magia | |
Adrian Noble | A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
Matthew Warchus | Volpone and Henry V | |
1997 | ||
Des McAnuff | Tommy | |
Richard Eyre | John Gabriel Borkman | |
Anthony Page | A Doll's House | |
Matthew Warchus | 'Art' | |
1998 | ||
Richard Eyre | King Lear | |
Walter Bobbie | Chicago | |
Sam Mendes | Othello | |
Matthew Warchus | Hamlet | |
1999 | ||
Howard Davies | The Iceman Cometh | |
Sam Mendes | The Blue Room | |
Trevor Nunn | Oklahoma! | |
Ian Rickson | The Weir |
Year | Director | Production |
---|---|---|
2020 | ||
Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell | Death of a Salesman | |
Jamie Lloyd | Cyrano de Bergerac | |
Trevor Nunn | Fiddler on the Roof | |
Ian Rickson | Uncle Vanya | |
2021 | Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic | |
2022 | ||
Rebecca Frecknall | Cabaret | |
Michael Longhurst | Constellations | |
Kathleen Marshall | Anything Goes | |
Max Webster | Life of Pi | |
2023 | ||
Phelim McDermott | My Neighbour Totoro | |
Rebecca Frecknall | A Streetcar Named Desire | |
Robert Hastie | Standing at the Sky's Edge | |
Justin Martin | Prima Facie | |
Bartlett Sher | To Kill A Mockingbird | |
2024 | ||
Jamie Lloyd | Sunset Boulevard | |
Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin | ||
Rupert Goold | Dear England | |
Sam Mendes | The Motive and the Cue |
Note: This list of multiple awards and nominations includes individuals awarded and nominated for the Best Director award (1976–1990, 1996–present), as well as the short-lived (1991–1995) more granular pair of awards for Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical.