Tom Hiddleston among Evening Standard theatre awards nominees

Acting nominees include Gillian Anderson, Tom Hiddleston and Kristin Scott Thomas

Tom Hiddleston, Gillian Anderson and Kristin Scott Thomas are among the nominees for acting prizes at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Other stars vying for acting honours include Mark Strong, Ben Miles, Billie Piper and Helen McCrory.

The awards, in their 60th year, take place take at the London Palladium on 30 November.

This year's ceremony will be presented by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Hiddleston is one of of three best actor nominees for his blood-soaked role as Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

He faces competition from Strong's Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and Ben Miles, as Thomas Cromwell in the RSC adaptations of Hilary Mantel's historical novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Medea: Helen McCrory's performance as Euripides' tragic heroine at the National Theatre received glowing reviews

Phoebe Fox (Catherine), Mark Strong (Eddie) and Nicola Walker (Beatrice) in A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic

The five strong best actress category sees Anderson's Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, up against two ancient tragic heroines - Scott Thomas's Electra and McCrory's Medea.

Completing the list are Billie Piper as tabloid news editor Paige Britain in phone hacking satire Great Britain, and Tanya Moodie in Intimate Apparel.

Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel is up for best play against Rona Munro's epic trilogy The James Plays, Mike Bartlett's imagined royal story King Charles III and Jennifer Hayley's dark virtual reality thriller The Nether.

The best musicals category features Here Lies Love, with music by Talking Heads' David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon, which features the songs of Ray Davies.

Also in the running are Dogfight, based on the 1991 River Phoenix film, and The Scottsboro Boys, a true tale of racist bigotry in 1930s Alabama.

The Standard's owner Evgeny Lebedev, who chairs the judging panel, said: "It's been an honour to host these awards for the past five years now and a privilege to see them through to 2014, 60 years on from when Peter Hall's seminal production of Waiting for Godot won the award for Most Controversial Play.

"London's theatre scene is as vivid and dynamic today as it was then, if not more so. For me it's what makes London the arts capital of the world. I take huge pleasure in offering my congratulations to all those shortlisted."

The full list of nominees is on the London Evening Standard website.