The Play That Goes Wrong goes straight to Best Professional Production-winner at The Guide Awards

Paul Woolf, chief executive of The Kings, collected the award. Since arriving at the theatre in late 2016, he has been trying to shake things up a bit.

‘’It’s marvellous to win this. It’s been a real journey since I’ve been there – the theatre was languishing a little bit, so we made a commitment to bring in professional productions and one of them was The Play That Goes Wrong, and then we had (its sequel) The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, now we’ve got Avenue Q in, and so we’ve got a whole string of weeks – Hair’s coming soon – there’s lots of good stuff.

‘It’s going great. Like all things that have been there for along time, it’s a bit like a tanker in trying to turn it, and trying to get rid of some of the old cultural habits, but we’re now running it like a commercial theatre and we’re very proud of what we’re doing.’

War Horse at Mayflower Theatre in Southampton was runner-up.

The Best Professional Production category is sponsored by New Theatre Royal.