In honour of the 10th Birthday of Whatsonstage.com, James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons are to announce the nominations for the first audience empowered theatre award at Cafe de Paris on December 4th. The timely addition of a new category, 'Theatregoers Choice' to the acclaimed Whatsonstage.com Theatre Awards is welcomed the end of the noughties, giving theatre buffs the opportunity to consider the longer running theatre heavyweights and crowd-pleasers as well as new, memorable productions from the last year.

The nominations party will be a star-studded event attended by a host of Broadway and West End legends including James earl Jones and Jeremy Irons, Sanaa Lathan (Brown Sugar, The Family That Preys) and Phylicia Rashad , who played the legendary Clair Huxtable in The Cosby Show and received a Tony award for her role in A Raisin in the Sun.

After the nomination party on December 4th, the voting commences. Voters will be able to text their choice or vote online. The award ceremony itself will be held on Sunday 14 February 2010 at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre in front of a live audience.

35,000 voters took part in last year's poll but that figure should be smashed with the introduction of text voting and the chance to pick a favourite musical from all our old favourites. Check out the nominations at Whatsonstage.com

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