2014 WhatsOnStage Awards Launch Party highlights - the 9-minute version

We announced the full 2014 WhatsOnStage Awards shortlists at the annual Launch Party, one of the key dates in the theatrical calendar, on Friday 6 December 2013 at London's Café de Paris. Guest presenters Robert Lindsay and Rufus Hound, who star in next year's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels musical, previous WhatsOnStage Award winners Nigel Harman and Natalie Casey, Equity president Malcolm Sinclair -- and, on behalf of our Official Charity The Big Issue founder John Bird.

The star-studded audience also enjoyed performances from Broadway star Eden Espinosa (Wicked, Rent), The Color Purple's Cynthia Erivo (soon to star with Nigel Harman in I Can't Sing -- The X Factor Musical) as well as a sneak-peek of the forthcoming UK premiere of Urinetown The Musical, starring Richard Fleeshman.

Our video highlights from the day include performance clips as well as interviews with nominees and other stars including Leigh Zimmerman, Nigel Planer, Haydn Gwynne, Alison Steadman, Stephen Campbell Moore and The Book of Mormon's Gavin Creel and Alexia Khadime -- plus, fresh from TV documentary The Sound of Musicals, Happy Days producer Amy Anzel, and her stars Cheryl Baker, Ben Freeman and Heidi Range.

Don't have time? See also: our shorter, three-minute video highlights.