The play Big, which portrays youngsters’s writer Roald Dahl amid an outcry about his antisemitism, has triumphed on the Olivier awards on a star-studded night time on the Royal Albert Corridor in London.
US star John Lithgow took dwelling the perfect actor prize for his efficiency as Dahl, Elliot Levey received finest supporting actor (for enjoying writer Tom Maschler) and Mark Rosenblatt acquired the award for finest new play.
Big is Rosenblatt’s debut as a playwright and introduced him a double victory on the Critics’ Circle theatre awards in March, the place he received for many promising playwright and finest new play. Big ran final yr on the Royal Court docket in London and can switch to the West Finish later this month, with Lithgow and Levey resuming their roles.
Lithgow thanked the viewers for “welcoming me to England” and mentioned “it’s not at all times simple while you welcome an American into your midst”, highlighting that this second was “extra difficult than common” for relations between the US and the UK.
He remembered seeing Laurence Olivier’s “astounding efficiency” on the Previous Vic within the play Dance of Demise within the late Sixties. “I’ve considered him and stolen from him in nearly each efficiency I’ve ever performed on stage,” he added.
Big’s tally of three Olivier awards on Sunday night time was matched by two musicals: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof.
The previous, primarily based on the quick story by F Scott Fitzgerald and with music and lyrics by Jethro Compton and Darren Clark, received finest new musical, excellent musical contribution (for Clark and Mark Aspinall’s orchestrations and preparations) and finest actor in a musical (John Dagleish because the hero who’s born previous and grows youthful every day). Dagleish, who received an Olivier award in 2015 for portraying Ray Davies within the Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon, mentioned that his late mom had been his “plus one” on that event. He devoted the award to her and mentioned that “she would have beloved” The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Beforehand staged on the fringe venue Southwark Playhouse in 2019, it’s now operating within the West Finish’s Ambassadors theatre which lately opened its personal on-site custom-built pub, the Pickled Crab, named after a Cornish watering gap within the musical.
Fiddler on the Roof, which acquired a five-star Guardian overview at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre and is transferring to the Barbican subsequent month, had acquired a complete of 13 Olivier nominations, equalling a document set by the musical Hamilton in 2018.
The traditional musical – composed by Jerry Bock, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and guide by Joseph Stein – received 9 Tony awards in 1965 for its unique Broadway manufacturing. Director Jordan Fein’s new manufacturing received Oliviers for finest musical revival, finest set design (Tom Scutt) and finest sound design (Nick Lidster).
The ceremony, which celebrates the cream of London theatre, was hosted by the actors Beverley Knight, a winner on the 2023 awards, and Billy Porter, who’s starring because the Emcee in Cabaret. It opened with Knight and Porter performing Luck Be a Girl from the musical Guys and Dolls.
Romola Garai achieved the bizarre feat of beating herself to win the award for finest actress in a supporting position. She had been nominated twice in that class, recognising her performances in Big and The Years.
The latter introduced her victory. Based mostly on Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux’s memoir, The Years (on the Almeida theatre) additionally acquired the perfect director prize, with Norwegian theatre-maker Eline Arbo turning into the sixth lady to win that award on the Oliviers.
Garai mentioned The Years had been the “biggest privilege of my life” and thanked “my household of Annies” [all the cast share the main role of Annie as well as playing supporting characters]. She referred to as Arbo a “genius” who “put all ladies’s life on stage”. Garai additionally thanked her husband for his help whereas she took on the 2 productions.
Arbo beforehand directed The Years for Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, the world-renowned firm which additionally staged Robert Icke’s modern-day model of Sophocles’s Oedipus a number of years in the past.
Oedipus, which Icke directed with a brand new West Finish forged, received finest revival and finest actress for Lesley Manville as Jocasta.
Icke praised his “24-carat workforce” together with the producer Sonia Friedman, who he mentioned the trade was “fortunate to have”. (Garai, too, thanked Friedman, who produced The Years.) The expertise of constructing Oedipus had been joyous for the ensemble, added Icke, who jokingly noticed “incest actually brings folks collectively”. Manville famous Icke’s “care and precision” as a director in her speech.
The award for finest actress in a musical went to Imelda Staunton for her roof-raising flip in Hi there, Dolly! on the Palladium. It was Staunton’s 14th nomination and fifth win on the Oliviers. Probably the most-lauded particular person in Olivier awards historical past is lighting designer Paule Constable, who has acquired 17 nominations, and received her sixth award for Oliver! (shared with Ben Jacobs). Constable introduced her retirement from theatre earlier this yr.
The prize for finest theatre choreographer went to Christopher Wheeldon for the Michael Jackson bio-drama MJ the Musical, finest costume design went to Gabriella Slade for the colorful rollerskating trains in Starlight Specific, and Maimuna Memon took the award for finest actress in a supporting position in a musical for Natasha, Pierre and the Nice Comet of 1812.
Layton Williams, in the meantime, turned the primary Olivier winner in historical past to be recognised for portraying an iceberg (he took finest supporting actor in a musical for the zany Titanique). Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen on the Royal Opera Home received two prizes: finest new opera manufacturing and excellent achievement in opera (for tenor Allan Clayton).
The Nationwide Theatre, the Previous Vic and the Coliseum had been among the many main venues whose reveals’ nominations didn’t end in a win, though Rufus Norris acquired a particular award for his 10-year tenure as director of the Nationwide.
Established in 1976, the Olivier awards are overseen by the Society of London Theatre. The winners are chosen by a workforce of trade figures, stage luminaries and theatre-loving members of the general public.
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