Harry Potter play up for three Evening Standard Awards

The play is in two parts and is on at London's Palace Theatre

Hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is up for three honours at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

The show, set 19 years after the final Potter book, is up for best play, best director for John Tiffany and best emerging talent for Anthony Boyle.

The National Theatre's revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom also has three nominations.

Actress Sheridan Smith is in contention for the best musical performance prize for her role in Funny Girl.

The nomination comes after Smith took almost two months off from Funny Girl due to stress and exhaustion earlier this year.

She will go up against Glenn Close for Sunset Boulevard and Groundhog Day's Andy Karl.

Billie Piper is nominated for playing as a woman who desperately wants to have a child in Yerma

Helen McCrory, Noma Dumezweni, Sophie Melville and Billie Piper will compete for the Natasha Richardson award for best actress.

Dumezweni is recognised after stepping into the Royal Court's play Linda two weeks before opening night, replacing Kim Cattrall, who was suffering from extreme insomnia.

The complete shortlist:

Best actor

• Kenneth Branagh - The Entertainer (Garrick)

• Ian McKellen - No Man's Land (Wyndham's)

• O-T Fagbenie - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (National Theatre, Lyttelton)

• Ralph Fiennes - The Master Builder (Old Vic)/Richard III (Almeida)

• James McArdle - Platonov (Chichester Festival Theatre/National Theatre, Olivier)

Natasha Richardson award for best actress

• Noma Dumezweni - Linda (Royal Court, Jerwood Downstairs)

• Helen McCrory - The Deep Blue Sea (National Theatre, Lyttelton)

• Sophie Melville - Iphigenia in Splott (Sherman Cymru/National Theatre, Temporary Theatre)

• Billie Piper - Yerma (Young Vic)

Best musical performance

• Glenn Close - Sunset Boulevard (Coliseum)

• Andy Karl - Groundhog Day (The Old Vic)

• Sheridan Smith - Funny Girl (Savoy)

Best play

• Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) (Royal Court)

• The Flick - Annie Baker (National Theatre)

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre)

Evening Standard Radio 2 audience award for best musical

• Funny Girl (Menier Chocolate Factory/Savoy)

• Groundhog Day (Old Vic)

• Guys and Dolls (Savoy/Phoenix)

• Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre)

• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (National Theatre, Dorfman)

• Sunset Boulevard (Coliseum)

Milton Shulman award for best director

• Dominic Cooke - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (National Theatre)

• John Malkovich - Good Canary (Rose Kingston)

• John Tiffany - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace)

Best revival

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (National Theatre, Lyttelton)

• No Man's Land (Wyndham's)

• Young Chekhov: Platonov, Ivanov & The Seagull (Chichester Festival Theatre/National Theatre, Olivier)

• Les Blancs (National Theatre, Olivier)

Best design

• Jon Bausor - You For Me For You (Royal Court)

• Gareth Fry with Peter Malkin for sound design - The Encounter (Edinburgh International Festival/Barbican)

• Rob Howell - The Master Builder (Old Vic) and Groundhog Day (Old Vic)

Charles Wintour award for the most promising playwright

• Charlene James - Cuttin' It (Young Vic/Royal Court/Yard)

• Jon Brittain - Rotterdam (Theatre503/Trafalgar Studios)

• David Ireland - Cypress Avenue (Royal Court)

Emerging talent award

• Jaygann Ayeh - The Flick (National Theatre/Dorfman)

• Anthony Boyle - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace)

• Aoife Duffin - A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin and Young Vic) and The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe)

• Tyrone Huntley (Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre)

The awards will be handed out on 13 November at London's Old Vic Theatre during a ceremony co-hosted by Sir Elton John and Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev.