The Stage Debut Awards 2024: Jack Wolfe wins audience vote

Best Performer in a Musical was also won jointly, by both Jeevan Braich for Starlight Express at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre and Hodgett Young for Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre.

Sunset Boulevard’s designers Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom also triumphed at The Stage Debut Awards, sharing the Best Designer gong for their work on Jamie Lloyd’s revival. 

Meanwhile Daniel Bailey, director of Red Pitch at @sohoplace, picked up the Best Creative West End Debut award, with Sophie Drake winning Best Director for The Bleeding Tree at Southwark Playhouse Borough. 

Drake pipped director of 42 Balloons at Salford’s Lowry, Ellie Coote, and director of Belfast’s Lyric Theatre’s Little Women, Emily Foran, in the first all-female Best Director category in The Stage Debut Awards’ history. 

Meanwhile Sam Grabiner and Azuka Oforka both scooped the award for Best Writer for Soho Theatre’s Boys on the Verge of Tears and Sherman Theatre’s The Women of Llanrumney respectively. Their joint victory marked the first time the gong was won by two writers.

Other winners included Jack Godfrey, who took home the award for Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer for 42 Balloons at the Lowry. 

The Stage editor Alistair Smith commended the "amazing array of talent" on show at The Stage Debut Awards’ seventh iteration, and highlighted the event’s "enviable track record" of supporting Olivier winners, theatre bosses and TV stars at the start of their careers. 

Smith added: "The judges were in complete awe of the talent on display from all our winners. In many cases, it felt almost inconceivable these could be their professional debuts, such was the level of skill on show.

"At a time when there has been much talk about how difficult it is for new playwrights to break through, the judges were particularly pleased to be able to recognise two superb winners in the Best Writer category for the first time."

Headline sponsor ATG Entertainment’s chief content and creative officer Michael Lynas also congratulated the winners and nominees, adding that they were at the forefront of "a remarkable process of evolution and renewal" in UK theatre. 

He continued: "We are delighted to be here to celebrate your achievements and we look forward, eagerly, to watching you grow and flourish in the years ahead."