Sheffield musicals up for UK Theatre Awards

Show Boat's Emmanuel Kojo and Flowers for Mrs Harris's Clare Burt are both up for awards

Musicals staged by Sheffield's Crucible theatre lead the nominations for this year's UK Theatre Awards, which reward the best shows produced outside London.

The Crucible's production of Show Boat and its new musical Flowers for Mrs Harris are both up for best musical.

Paapa Essiedu, the Royal Shakespeare Company's first black Hamlet, is in the running for best performance in a play.

Sir Ian McKellen will receive a special prize at this year's event, to be held at London's Guildhall on 9 October.

Previous recipients of the outstanding contribution to British theatre award include Sir Peter Hall, choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne and actor Simon Callow.

Sir Ian McKellen will be recognised for outstanding contribution to British theatre

Clare Burt is nominated for best performance in a musical for Flowers for Mrs Harris, which was adapted from a 1958 novel by Paul Gallico.

Daniel Evans directed both Flowers for Mrs Harris and Show Boat, which transferred to the West End in April. He has since left Sheffield Theatres to become artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre.

Chichester's exuberant summer production of Half a Sixpence is up for two awards ahead of its West End transfer next month.

Actress Lesley Manville, host of this year's awards ceremony, said she "looked forward to celebrating a year of artistic achievement".

The full list of nominations is as follows:

Best new play

• Folk by Tom Wells, a Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre production

• Cuttin' It by Charlene James, a Young Vic/Royal Court Theatre co-production with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sheffield Theatre and The Yard Theatre

• This Restless House by Zinnie Harris, a Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland production

Best musical production

• Flowers for Mrs Harris directed by Daniel Evans, a Sheffield Theatres Production

• Half a Sixpence directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, a Chichester Festival Theatre and Cameron Mackintosh production

• Show Boat directed by Daniel Evans, a Sheffield Theatres production

Best touring production

• A Raisin in the Sun directed by Dawn Walton, an Eclipse Theatre Company, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Sheffield Theatres production

• The Herbal Bed directed by James Dacre, an English Touring Theatre, Royal & Derngate Northampton and Rose Theatre Kingston production

• Toast directed by Eleanor Rhode, a Snapdragon Production

Best show for children and young people

• Gangsta Granny, a Birmingham Stage Company production

• The Hobbit, a The Dukes production

• Little Red and the Wolf, a Dundee Rep Ensemble production

Best director

• Robert Hastie for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a Theatr Clwyd production

• Samuel Hodges for The Glass Menagerie, a Nuffield Theatre production

• Raz Shaw for Wit, a Royal Exchange Theatre production

Best performance in a play

• Paapa Essiedu for Hamlet, a Royal Shakespeare Company production

• Julie Hesmondhalgh for Wit, a Royal Exchange Theatre production

• James McArdle for Young Chekhov: Platonov and Ivanov, a Chichester Festival Theatre production

Best performance in a musical

• Clare Burt for Flowers for Mrs Harris, a Sheffield Theatres Production

• Charlie Stemp for Half a Sixpence, a Chichester Festival Theatre and Cameron Mackintosh production

• Allyson Ava-Brown, Jennifer Saayeng and Nina Toussaint-White for The Etienne Sisters, a Theatre Royal Stratford East production

Best supporting performance

• Emmanuel Kojo for Show Boat, a Sheffield Theatres production

• Rebecca Trehearn for Show Boat, a Sheffield Theatres production

• Olivia Vinall for Young Chekhov: The Seagull, a Chichester Festival Theatre production

Best design

• Lez Brotherston for Flowers for Mrs Harris and Show Boat, both Sheffield Theatres productions

• Max Dorey and Sally Ferguson for And Then Come the Nightjars, a Theatre503 and Bristol Old Vic production in association with Tara Finney Productions

• Robert Jones for Strife, a Chichester Festival Theatre production

Achievement in opera

• The Royal Opera and Guildhall School of Music and Drama for 4.48 Psychosis in association with the Lyric Hammersmith

• Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales for The Devil Inside

• Welsh National Opera for Figaro Gets a Divorce and In Parenthesis

Achievement in dance

• Dance Consortium for bringing back the exceptional dancers of Nederlands Dans Theater 2 for a UK tour

• Gary Clarke for his vital, heartfelt and socially relevant dance-theatre production Coal

• Northern Ballet for commissioning two striking new contemporary ballets: Jonathan Watkins' 1984 and Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre

Promotion of diversity

• Belgrade Theatre

• Eclipse Theatre Company

• Oldham Coliseum

Theatre employee or manager of the year

• Kevin Shaw, Oldham Coliseum

• Diane Belding, Liverpool Empire Theatre

• Neil Chandler, New Wimbledon Theatre

Achievement in marketing

• Birmingham Hippodrome

• York Theatre Royal

• Northern Ballet

Best presentation of touring theatre

• Curve On Tour

• Northern Stage

• Northern Ballet

Theatregoers have until 12:00 BST on 19 September to cast their vote for the UK's most welcoming theatre.