The 2023 fosterIAN award winners

Best lead performance in a musical
Carl Mullaney, La Cage aux Folles
Rachael Wooding/Faith Omole/Alex Young, Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Best supporting performance in a musical
Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson, Tom Roe, Natassia Bustamante and Melinda Orengo, Police Cops: the Musical
Bonnie Langford, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends

Best lead performance in a play
Harriet Walter, The House of Bernarda Alba
Ruth Wilson, The Second Woman

Best supporting performance in a play
Will Close, Dear England
Gina McKee, Dear England

My top 10 plays of the year:
1. Police Cops: the Musical
2. Standing at the Sky’s Edge
3. The Odyssey – The Underworld
4. It’s A Motherf**king Pleasure
5. La Cage aux Folles
6. The Long Run
7. How We Begin
8. The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria
9. Dear England
10. Four Felons and a Funeral

After some reflection and looking at how other theatre awards have addressed the issue of gendered awards, I’ve come up with my own solution. I’ve merged categories but doubled the number of awards, so that I’m still recognising the same number of performances rather than halving them, as so many others seem to have done. Each to their own, but I’d always want to celebrate more than less of the performances I’ve loved throughout the year.