As one of the sponsors of the What’s on Stage Awards 2012, we were delighted to join the party at Cafe de Paris on Friday to hear the nominees for the 2012 awards taking place in February.

12th Whatsonstage.com Awards shortlists:

•       David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s Much Ado About Nothing pairing nominated for Theatre Event of the Year.

•       Legends Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones both up for Best Actress and Best Actor for Broadway transfer of Driving Miss Daisy.

•       James Corden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tamsin Greig, Jude Law, Kevin Spacey, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ruth Wilson, Sheridan Smith, Arthur Darvill, Amanda Holden, Nigel Harman, Mark Gatiss, Richard Fleeshman, Tara Fitzgerald, Simon Callow, Matt Lucas, Alfie Boe, Ruby Wax, Reece Shearsmith, Sarah Lancashire and Daniel Kitson receive performance nods.

•       Blockbusters Matilda and Ghost – both directed by Matthew Warchus – go head to head with 9 nominations each, including Best New Musical and London Newcomer of the Year for Matilda’s Tim Minchin.

•       Ecstasy and Grief: Mike Leigh up for Best Play Revival and Best New Play.

•       The National leads the way with 22 nominations, including five for One Man, Two Guvnors and four for Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein.

The shortlist of nominations for the 12th annual Whatsonstage.com Awards were revealed last Friday 2nd December at a star-studded launch party at London’s Café de Paris. The Awards from the UK’s leading theatre website are the only UK event for the theatre industry voted for purely by the ticket-buying public. More than 11,000 theatregoers have cast nominations for their favourite performances and productions across 26 different award categories.

Here are some of the pictures from the party:

Voting to crown the winners opened on Friday 2 December and will close at the end of January 2012. The winners will be revealed at the Awards Concert on 19 February 2012 at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre. Last year more than 46,000 theatregoers voted for their favourites. The Whatsonstage.com Awards are held in association with our 2012 presentation rights sponsor Time Out London in aid of this year’s adopted charity, Stage One, which is dedicated to developing the theatre producers of the future.

Check out more about the nominees and how you can vote for your favourite on the What’s On Stage website http://awards.whatsonstage.com/ or book your London theatre break now on our website.