Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2019: Stars arrive on red carpet as Olivia Colman and Taron Egerton set to honour winners

Olivia Colman, Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory are among those set to honour the best productions to take place during the year at the London Coliseum tonight.

This year’s star-studded ceremony will be presented by The Good Fight actress Cush Jumbo and co-hosted by Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev and American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour, alongside Lewis and McCrory.

Fleabag and The Crown star Colman will be joined by other familiar faces from stage and screen to hand out the awards, including Ruth Wilson, Lashana Lynch, Taron Egerton, Glenda Jackson and Naomi Scott.

Female playwrights lead this year’s award shortlist, with Caryl Churchill (Glass. Kill. Bluebird. Imp), debbie tucker green (ear for eye) and Lynn Nottage (Sweat) up for the Best Play Award, in partnership with Chanel, alongside Bruce Norris (Downstate), while Zoe Cooper (Out of Water), Yasmin Joseph (J’Ouvert) and Jasmine Lee-Jones (seven methods of killing kylie jenner) are on the list for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright, alongside Ross Willis (Wolfie).

Two actors from Norris’s Downstate compete for Best Actor, in partnership with ATG: K. Todd Freeman and Francis Guinan are up against Tom Hiddleston (Betrayal), Andrew Scott (Present Laughter) and Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman).

Downstate co-star Cecilia Noble is up for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, given in partnership with Christian Louboutin. She is joined by Hayley Atwell (Rosmersholm), Dame Maggie Smith (A German Life), Juliet Stevenson (The Doctor) and Anjana Vasan (A Doll’s House).

Read the 65th Evening Standard theatre Awards shortlist in full

The awards are held in association with Michael Kors. The winners will be announced this evening. Follow our coverage at standard.co.uk/theatreawards and on @thestandardarts with the hashtag #ESTheatreAwards