Jude Law and Rachel Weisz have triumphed at the annual Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards for their performances on the West End stage.
By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
Telegraph: 26 Jan 2010
Rachel Weisz perfoming at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in A Streetcar Named Desire Photo: ALASTAIR MUIR
Law, 37, won the award for Best Shakespearean Performance for his Hamlet in Michael Grandage’s Donmar production at the Wyndham Theatre.
Weisz, 39, won Best Actress for her performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse.
The pair are among Britain’s most bankable Hollywood stars, but took time out of their filming schedules to show they could cut it on the boards.
Both received excellent reviews when the two productions opened, with Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph saying Law’s performance was one of “rare vulnerability and emotional openness”.
Weisz, who had less stage experience, rose to the challenge “magnificently”, he said when Streetcar opened in July.
Spring Awakening won Best Musical despite closing five months early, after only 10 weeks. Rave reviews could not entice customers to buy tickets for the challenging musical about the pain of adolescence.
- The Best Actor award was won by Mark Rylance for playing gipsy Johnny Byron in Jerusalem, about the dark underside of rural English life. Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth at the Royal Court, won Best New Play.
