Western Australian arts companies, performers and creatives are among the nominees for this years Helpmann Awards.

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The Helpmann Awards are the premier celebration of Australia’s vibrant live performance industry, recognising distinguished achievement and excellence in musicals, contemporary music, comedy, opera and classical music, theatre, ballet, dance and physical theatre, presentations for children, regional touring and cabaret.

This evening Live Performance Australia announced the nominees in the 42 categories of the Helpmann Awards at simultaneous events in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

At the Perth ceremony opera star Fiona Campbell hosted the event while Mamma Mia! actor Stephen Mahy, producer and director Sally Richardson, and newly appointed Perth Festival director Iain Grandage took turns announcing the nominees.

Western Australian productions received eight nominations, this year 730 entries for the awards were received.

The West Australian Ballet’s acclaimed The Great Gatsby (pictured above) has been nominated for Best Ballet, while Melissa Boniface has been nominated for Best Female Dancer for her performance in the production.

Strut Dance are in the running to win Best Dance Production for their work One Flat Thing, Reproduced. While the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra has been nominated for Best Symphony Orchestra for their Wagner and Beyond: Inspiring Wagner performances.

Up and coming WA theatre companies Side Pony Productions and The Last Great Hunt are making a mark – they’ve been nominated in the Best Play category for their production The Irresistible. 

The Best Regional Touring Production category includes a nod for Sensorium Theatre and Performing Lines WA for Oddysea.

Perth raised actor Daniel Monks is the fresh new talent among some giants of theatre in the Best Actor Category. Monks will compete against John Bell and Hugo Weaving in the Best Actor statue, Toby Schmitz – who is also from Perth is the fourth nominee.

Monks has been nominated for his performance in The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man for Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre. Time Out Melbourne described his work in the play as a “towering performance”.

The play’s director Matthew Lutton has been nominated for Best Direction of a Play. Lutton’s also up for the Best Director of an Opera Award for his work on Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, a production from The Victoria Opera and Malthouse Theatre in association with the Melbourne Festival. WA trained designer Zoe Atkinson has been nominated for Best Costume Design for her work on the opera.

White Spirit which was part of this year’s Festival of Perth program has been nominated for Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production. Jordi Savall with Hesperion XXI & Tembembe Ensemble Continuo which was also part of this year’s festival was nominated for Best Chamber or Improvised Ensemble Performance.

The Sydney Theatre Company picked up a massive 27 nominations including nods their co-production of the musical Muriel’s Wedding, and the play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Muriel’s Wedding picked up eleven nominations including Best  New Australian Work and Best Original Score.

Bangarra Dance Theatre received nine nominations, eight for their work Bennelong, while The Australian Ballet picked up seven nominations, including six for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Also announced was the Best Special Event Award, presented to Melbourne International Arts Festival for Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.

Co-commissioned by the Festival,  the New York drag star’s mission was to chart a complete social history of the United States through the music that scored its rebellions and revolution, triumphs and tragedies: across four six-hour marathons of staggering scale, covering one decade per hour. 150 local and international artists worked with Taylor Mac’s team to pull off this queer retelling of history, at a time when the lives of Australia’s LGBTIQ+ community were under the spotlight.

Taylor Mac is nominated for the Best Cabaret Performer award, judy* will be competing against Reuben Kaye – who entertained Fringe World audiences at Club Swizzle this year, perennial Fringe favourites The Briefs Ensemble and Queenie van de Zandt for her production Blue: The Songs of Joni Mitchell.

Queer comedians Zoe Coombs-Marr, Urzila Carlson and Rhys Nicholson are all in the running for Best Comedy performer, Celia Pacquola, Anne Edmonds, Julia Morris and duo Colin Lane and Frank Woodley round out the field.

Mamma Mia, which is currently playing at the Crown Theatre received nominations for Best Musical, and for it’s choreography from Tom Hodgson, while lead actors Natalie O’Donnell and Ian Stenlake also received nominations.

Stenlake will be competing against an impressive list of peers for the Best Actor in a Musical Award. David Campbell has picked up two nominations in that category for his work on Assassins and Dream Lover. David Harris and Euan Doige from Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical are also in the running. 

This year, the winners of the 2018 Helpmann Awards will be announced at two events over two nights. This exciting step in the development of the Helpmanns follows the same model and process adopted by many major international awards ceremonies.

Act I, on Sunday 15 July at Sydney Town Hall, will be a sit down event at cocktail hour celebrating the very best creative, designer and supporting roles. It will also include Awards for Best Presentation for Children and the Best Regional Touring Production.

This industry insider event will include sensational performances and be hosted by celebrated broadcaster, director, producer, actor, advisor and artistic director Rhoda Roberts AM and Michael Lynch CBE AO, one of Australia’s most experienced and internationally renowned Arts Administrators.

Act II, on Monday 16 July at the Capitol Theatre, will be staged on the set of Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical. This Black Tie event, will present all live performance Award genres along with celebrating the 2017 Centenary JC Williamson and Sue Nattrass Award recipients.

The internationally acclaimed Olivier & Tony Nominee, Helpmann Award winning performer and writer, Tony Sheldon will be one of the evenings revered hosts. Performances will include the cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical.

*Taylor Mac uses the pronoun ‘judy’.

Graeme Watson