Nicole Kidman wins best actress award for role in Photograph 51

Nicole Kidman’s triumphant return to the West End stage for the first time in nearly 20 years has won her the best actress prize at the UK’s longest-running theatre awards.

Kidman won at the 2015 London Evening Standard theatre awards for her portrayal of the overlooked DNA scientist Rosalind Franklin in Photograph 51.

The starry ceremony, at London’s Old Vic theatre, also saw success for the actors James McAvoy and Imelda Staunton, with special awards going to Vanessa Redgrave and Stephen Sondheim.

Kidman returned to the West End 17 years after she lit up the stage with her performance in David Hare’s The Blue Room, memorably described as “pure theatrical Viagra” by the Daily Telegraph critic Charles Spencer.

Her performance as a guarded, driven scientist in Photograph 51 was never going to be so erotically charged, but Kidman still had critics in raptures.

The Observer’s Susannah Clapp called it “dramatic amphetamine”, while Michael Billington, in the Guardian, praised her “commanding, intelligent performance”.

Ben Brantley, in the New York Times, wrote that Kidman had seldom been better cast. “Among movie stars of her generation, she stands out for the relentless determination she projects; she seduces audiences not by charm but by concentration,” he said.

Kidman was persuaded to return to the stage by the director Michael Grandage and attracted to the role of Francis because her father was a research scientist. He died a year ago and the role, she said, was in part a tribute to him.

“This is my way of acknowledging him but also of acknowledging people in science who quietly go about their work and do things and go unacknowledged a lot of the time,” Kidman said. “He knew I was going to do it so I would like to think he is somewhere offering support.”

At the ceremony on Sunday night Kidman said she knelt before a photograph of her late father for every performance in the run which ended on Saturday. “I did this for him ... he would give me the strength to do this every night.

She also thanked Grandage. “You made this happen. You convinced me to come back here after 17 years. You found a new play and you made it all possible and you made it possible with such elegance and ease.”

She said the summer church hall rehearsals had reminded her of being an acting student again.

“Theatre is alive, it’s not dead, it continues. People will stand out for a £10 ticket in the snow to see a play and I love that. Everybody is doing their job.”

Kidman won from a shortlist that included Denise Gough for People, Places and Things at the National Theatre; Gugu Mbatha-Raw for Nell Gwynn at Shakespeare’s Globe and Lia Williams for Oresteia at the Almeida.

It was a good night for movie stars, with McAvoy winning best actor for his portrayal of an English earl with a messiah complex in a revival of Peter Barnes’ 1968 satire The Ruling Class.

The play was part of the Jamie Lloyd season at Trafalgar Studios and McAvoy won from a strong shortlist that included Simon Russell Beale for Temple at the Donmar Warehouse; Kenneth Cranham for The Father at Wyndham’s Theatre and Ralph Fiennes for Man and Superman at the National Theatre.

It may be some consolation for missing out on an Olivier award earlier this year. McAvoy was nominated but lost out to Mark Strong in A View from the Bridge.

There was little surprise when Staunton was named winner in the best musical performance category for her unforgettable portrayal of Momma Rose in Gypsy. The production began in Chichester before transferring to the Savoy Theatre and was universally praised, with Billington calling it “one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen in musical theatre”.

Staunton reprised the role at the ceremony, hosted by Rob Brydon, singing Everything’s Coming Up Roses.

The newcomer in a musical award went to Gemma Arterton for Made in Dagenham – a poignant prize perhaps, given the show closed after six months, having failed to attract big enough audiences.

The Royal Court theatre won three categories: Molly Davies took the Charles Wintour award for most promising playwright for God Bless the Child; David Moorst won the emerging talent award for his role in Violence and Son and Anna Fleischle topped the list in the design category for Hangmen, the Martin McDonagh play that got its premiere at the Royal Court.

It missed out on the best play award, however, with the accolade going to The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis, which had its UK premiere at the National Theatre.

In the best director category, Robert Icke won for Oresteia, part of the Almeida’s Greeks season. He won from a shortlist that also included Lloyd for Assassins and Indhu Rubasingham for The Motherfucker with the Hat.

The winners were decided by a panel of critics and journalists. The one award decided by the public was for best musical, the prize going to Kinky Boots from a list that also had Gyspy, Bend it Like Beckham, Assassinsand Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

The editor’s award was presented to Redgrave by Fiennes and her daughter Joely Richardson, while a special prize in the name of the Evening Standard’s owner, the Lebedev award, was given by Judi Dench and Ian McKellen to Stephen Sondheim, who this year celebrated his 85th birthday.

The awards are not London’s most prestigious – that belongs to the Oliviers – but they are significant and highly prized. Presented annually since 1955, the role call of previous winners includes Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren and Benedict Cumberbatch.