One of our most popular theatrical knights and a favourite comic entertainer will be presenting honours at this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Sir Ian McKellen will be opening the envelope to announce who has taken this year's prize for best play and Meera Syal will announce the winner of the Charles Wintour award for most promising playwright.

While both have won fame on television and in film in recent years - McKellen as Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings and Syal as a writer and performer in shows such as The Kumars At No 42 - both have been busy themselves on stage this year.

Sir Ian has been touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company and is about to open in the West End transfer of Trevor Nunn's production of King Lear, which has already sold out.

He is a two-time best actor winner at the Evening Standard's awards, for Othello in 1989 and Coriolanus five years earlier.

Syal has recently finished in the National Theatre's hit Rafta, Rafta in which she played Lopa Dutt, the groom's mother in Ayub Khan-Din's Asian family drama.

Rafta, Rafta, a new version of a Sixties British comedy, is itself one of the three nominees for best play. Its rivals are another National production, Nicholas Wright's The Reporter, based on the true-life story of BBC journalist James Mossman, and Simon McBurney and Complicite's dazzling mathematical tale A Disappearing Number, which was seen at the Barbican.

There are also three nominees for the most promising playwright award, which comes with a £25,000 cheque jointly donated by Lord Rothermere, the Evening Standard's proprietor, and American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, in honour of her father, Charles Wintour, a former Evening Standard editor and founder of the awards.

The nominees are Hassan Abdulrazzak for Baghdad Wedding, at the Soho Theatre, Lucy Caldwell for Leaves, at the Royal Court Upstairs, and Polly Stenham for That Face, at the same venue.

The awards will be presented at a lunchtime ceremony compered by Richard Wilson at the Savoy Hotel on Tuesday.

Guests will include Mackenzie Crook, Charles Dance, Anne-Marie Duff, Iain Glen, Patrick Stewart, Tom Stoppard, Samuel West and Olivia Williams.

Evening Standard 2007 Theatre Awards shortlist

Best Play
A Disappearing Number' Simon McBurney And Complicite (Barbican)
Rafta, Rafta, Ayub Khan-Din (National's Lyttelton)
The Reporter, Nicholas Wright (National's Cottesloe)

Best Actor
Charles Dance, Shadowlands (Wyndham's Theatre)
Robert Lindsay, The Entertainer (Old Vic)
Mark Rylance, Boeing Boeing (Comedy Theatre)
Patrick Stewart, Macbeth (Chichester, then Gielgud)

Best Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, Saint Joan (National's Olivier)
Billie Piper, Treats (Garrick Theatre)
Portia, The Member Of The Wedding (Young Vic)
Penelope Wilton, John Gabriel Borkman (Donmar Warehouse)

Best Design
Felix Barrett And Punchdrunk, The Masque Of The Red Death (Punchdrunk at BAC)
Robin Don, The Emperor Jones (National's Olivier)
Rae Smith & The Handspring Puppet Company, War Horse (National's Olivier)
Anthony Ward, Macbeth (Chichester, then Gielgud)

The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director
Marianne Elliott & Tom Morris, War Horse (National's Olivier)
Rupert Goold, Macbeth (Chichester, then Gielgud)
Tim Supple, A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC Swan Theatre, then Roundhouse)

The Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical
Fiddler On The Roof, Savoy Theatre
Hairspray, Shaftesbury Theatre
Parade, Donmar Warehouse

The Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright
Hassan Abdulrazzak, Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre)
Lucy Caldwell, Leaves (Royal Court Upstairs)
Polly Stenham, That Face (Royal Court Upstairs)

The Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer
Amanda Hale, The Glass Menagerie (Apollo Theatre)
Matt Smith, That Face (RoyalCourtUpstairs) Stephen Wight, Dealer's Choice/Don Juan In Soho (Menier Chocolate Factory/Donmar Warehouse)