Tom Hiddleston and David Tennant land top nods for British theater awards

Tom Hiddleston, David Tennant, Gemma Arterton and Gillian Anderson have been lauded for their theater acting after landing top nominations for Britain's WhatsOnStage Awards.

Hiddleston's performance as Shakespeare's Coriolanus has scored the production six nods, including Best Actor in a Play for the Thor star, who will do battle with Tennant (Richard II), Mark Strong (A View From the Bridge), Richard Armitage (The Crucible) and Tom Bateman (Shakespeare in Love).

Castmembers Hadley Fraser, Mark Gatiss and Deborah Findlay have also earned recognition in the supporting categories, while Coriolanus is shortlisted for Best Play Revival, against Blithe Spirit, The Crucible, Richard II and A Streetcar Named Desire.

The Tennessee Williams production has also won acclaim for Anderson as Best Actress in a Play, pitting her against Billie Piper (Great Britain), Imelda Staunton (Good People), Helen McCrory (Medea) and Lucy Briggs-Owen (Shakespeare in Love).

Meanwhile, the musical categories are dominated by Miss Saigon and Memphis the Musical, boasting 12 and 10 nominations respectively.

Miss Saigon's Alistair Brammer and Jon Jon Briones are up for Best Actor in a Musical, alongside Memphis the Musical's Killian Donnelly, Marti Pellow from Evita and Robert Lindsay for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, while the female category features Miss Saigon's Eva Noblezada going up against Beverley Knight (Memphis the Musical) and former Bond girl Gemma Arterton (Made in Dagenham), among others.

The winners for the WhatsOnStage Awards, voted for by the public, will be announced at a ceremony in London on 15 February (15).