Following closely on the tail of the Olivier Awards is this year’s Also Recognised Awards. The awards are audience voted and were originally set up by theatre commentators Mark Shenton and Terri Paddock to celebrate lesser-known but equally worthy talent in fields overlooked by other awards bodies.

There were quite a few crossovers with the Olivier Awards. Cyndi Lauper – who wrote the music for Kinky Boots and won Best New Musical at the Oliviers, also won the Also Recognised Award for Best Original Music.

Chichester Festival Theatre’s revival of Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre was the most successful production at the Olivier Awards with four wins. In the Also Recognised Awards, Nicholas Skilbeck won the prize for Best Musical Direction for his work on the show. This category is unique to the Also Recognised Awards which, at their inauguration in 2015, became the first UK awards to include Best Musical Direction.

Other unique categories are those which highlight success in the field of marketing creativity. This year The Phantom of the Opera (@PhantomOpera) won Best Twitter Engagement and Peter Pan Goes Wrong won Best Show Trailer: https://youtu.be/N_1IwYXv2W8

Elsewhere in the 2016 Also Recognised Awards, the Donmar Warehouse won Theatre Event of the Year for its live election night broadcast of James Graham’s play The Vote. And the National Theatre won Best Show Poster for the colourful imagery used to advertise Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Motherf**ker With the Hat.

This year’s new Also Recognised category, Best Musical Cabaret, was awarded to Scott Alan and Cynthia Erivo for their intimate cabaret evening at the St. James Studio.

Full voting results, acceptance remarks and winners’ ‘certificate selfies’ are published on http://www.mytheatremates.com from Thursday 7th April 2016.

The full list of winners

• Best Musical Direction – Nicholas Skilbeck for Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre
• Best Original Music – Cyndi Lauper for Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theatre
• Best Ensemble Performance – Bugsy Malone at the Lyric Hammersmith
• Best Solo Performance – Zoë Wanamaker for All On Her Own at the Garrick Theatre
• Best Musical Cabaret – Scott Alan & Cynthia Erivo at St James Studio
• London Newcomer of the Year – Natalie Dew for Bend It Like Beckham at the Phoenix Theatre
• Best Shakespearean Production – The Winter’s Tale at the Garrick Theatre
• Best Twitter Engagement – The Phantom of the Opera (@PhantonOpera) at Her Majesty’s Theatre
• Best Show Poster – The Motherf**ker with the Hat at the National Theatre, Lyttelton
• Best Show Trailer – Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre
• Theatre Event of the Year – Election night broadcast of James Graham’s The Vote at the Donmar Warehouse