Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2019: '& Juliet is bringing younger audiences to the West End' says Miriam-Teak Lee

The musical, which shows what might have happened to Juliet if she hadn't died at the end of the Shakespeare play, opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre this week.

“Young people who wouldn't necessarily come to the theatre are coming to this show now, which is incredible. We want to keep that going, we really do,” said Lee, speaking on the red carpet at the 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

“There’s such a wide span of audiences that it attracts because you can have a five-year-old, their mum there, their mum there! You can have so many different ages, because of the songs. Max Martin has written these songs for over about 30 years so it spans so many different audiences.

She stars as Juliet in the West End musical, which is based on the music of songwriter Martin. His back-catalogue includes songs by Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake.

She says she is “overwhelmed” by the “incredible” response from audiences.

“From the beginning we’ve been so passionate about this project and we’ve just been waiting for the world to see what we love so much about this show.”

& Juliet is running now at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

This year's award ceremony is presented by The Good Fight actress Cush Jumbo. Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory are co-hosting alongside American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour and the Evening Standard’s owner Evgeny Lebedev.

Fleabag and The Crown star Olivia Colman is among those familiar faces from stage and screen handing out awards, also including Ruth Wilson, Lashana Lynch, Taron Egerton, Glenda Jackson and Naomi Scott.

Read the 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards shortlist in full

Follow our coverage at standard.co.uk/theatreawards and on @thestandardarts with the hashtag #ESTheatreAwards