AT a star-studded ceremony at Sydney’s Seymour Centre last night (Monday, January 21), two Canberra names stood out among the winners in the Sydney Theatre Awards.

One of which, was pianist and musical director Lucy Bermingham, who won best musical direction for her work on the contemporary musical “In the Heights”.

Bermingham, born and bred in Canberra, was a veteran accompanist and musical director in Canberra, having worked with “CityNews” music writer and conductor Ian McLean on shows as diverse as “Carousel”, “Les Miserables”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “My Fair Lady” and “Singin’ in the Rain”. She moved to Sydney in 2014 after being been snaffled up by Baz Luhrmann as assistant musical director for “Strictly Ballroom”.

Directed by Griffin Theatre’s Anthea Williams, the best cabaret production went to Omar Musa’s one-man-show “Since Ali Died”, which is soon coming to Canberra Theatre Centre.

Thirty-four awards were presented in front of more than 450 members of the Sydney theatre community. The awards were shared between 16 productions which had played in Sydney during the calendar year of 2018.

At the top of the list was Sydney Theatre Company’s “The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two”, with names such as Hugo Weaving, Kate Mulvany and Mitchell Butel heading up the list of awarded actors and the petite Hayes Theatre taking out several awards for musicals, including “In the Heights”.

The Sydney Theatre Award for “lifetime achievement” was presented to Robert Love, a champion of the arts in Western Sydney and director of Riverside Theatres, Parramatta.

The awards are presented annually by a group of leading theatre critics to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney.

Omar Musa is the son of “CityNews” arts editor Helen Musa