Helen Mirren and Billie Piper go head to head at Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Othello's Rory Kinnear is nominated in two categories for best actor and most promising playwright for 'The Herd'

Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth I in Peter Morgan's play 'The Audience' (AP)

Helen Mirren, Billie Piper and Kristin Scott Thomas will go head to head at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

The actresses are among five nominees named in the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, alongside Linda Bassett for Roots (Donmar Warehouse) and Lesley Manville in Ghosts (Almeida).

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adrian Lister and Rory Kinnear will go up against each other in the Best Actor category, for their respective performances in A Season in the Congo (Young Vic) and Othello (NT).

Kinnear has been shortlisted twice for both Best Actor and Most Promising Playwright, for his play The Herd (Bush).

Lucy Kirkwood has been nominated in the Best Play category for Chimerica (Almeida), alongside playwright Lucy Prebble for The Effect (NT) and Nick Dear for The Dark Earth the Light Sky (Almeida).

South Park's The Book of Mormon will go against Tori Amos’ The Light Princess and Merrily We Roll Along for Best Musical Award.

The winners will be announced at a gala compered by Damian Lewis at the Savoy Hotel on 17 November.

Other honours include an award for emerging talent, presented in partnership with Burberry, and a special award from Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev.

Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2013: Shortlist in full