OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

Best Actor

2010 Mark Rylance for Jerusalem
2009 Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night
2008 Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello
2007 Rufus Sewell for Rock ‘N’ Roll
2006 Brian Dennehy for Death Of A Salesman
2005 Richard Griffiths for The History Boys
2004 Matthew Kelly for Of Mice And Men
2003 Simon Russell Beale for Uncle Vanya
2002 Roger Allam for Privates On Parade
2001 Conleth Hill for Stones In His Pockets
2000 Henry Goodman for The Merchant Of Venice
1999 Kevin Spacey for The Iceman Cometh
1998 Ian Holm for King Lear
1997 Antony Sher for Stanley
1996 Alex Jennings for Peer Gynt
1995 David Bamber for My Night With Reg
1994 Mark Rylance for Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Robert Stephens for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
1992 Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness Of George III
1991 Ian McKellen for Richard III
1989/90 Oliver Ford Davies for Racing Demon
1987 Michael Gambon for A View From The Bridge
1986 Albert Finney for Orphans
1985 Antony Sher for Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy

Actor of the Year in a New Play

1988 David Haig for Our Country’s Good
1984 Brian Cox for Rat In The Skull
1983 Jack Shepherd for Glengarry Glen Ross
1982 Ian McDiarmid for lnsignificance
1981 Trevor Eve for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Roger Rees for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 Ian McKellen for Bent
1978 Tom Conti for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1977 Michael Bryant for State Of Revolution
1976 Paul Copley for King And Country

Actor of the Year in a Revival

1988 Brian Cox for Titus Andronicus
1984 Ian McKellen for Wild Honey
1983 Derek Jacobi for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 Stephen Moore for A Doll’s House
1981 Daniel Massey for Man And Superman
1980 Jonathan Pryce for Hamlet
1979 Warren Mitchell for Death Of A Salesman
1978 Alan Howard for Coriolanus
1977 Ian McKellen for Pillars Of The Community
1976 Alan Howard for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V

Best Actor in a Musical

2010 Aneurin Barnard for Spring Awakening
2009 Douglas Hodge for La Cage aux Folles
2008 Michael Ball for Hairspray
2007 Daniel Evans for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower for Billy Elliot – The Musical
2005 Nathan Lane for The Producers
2004 David Bedella for Jerry Springer – The Opera
2003 Alex Jennings for My Fair Lady
2002 Philip Quast for South Pacific
2001 Daniel Evans for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Simon Russell Beale for Candide
1999 The cast of Kat and The Kings
1998 Philip Quast for The Fix
1997 Robert Lindsay for Oliver!
1996 Adrian Lester for Company
1995 John Gordon Sinclair for She Loves Me
1994 Alun Armstrong for Sweeney Todd
1993 Henry Goodman for Assassins
1992 Alan Bennett for Talking Heads
1991 Philip Quast for Sunday In The Park With George
1989/90 Jonathan Pryce for Miss Saigon
1988 Con O’Neill for Blood Brothers
1987 John Bardon and Emil Wolk for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Michael Crawford for The Phantom Of The Opera
1985 Robert Lindsay for Me And My Girl
1984 Paul Clarkson for The Hired Man
1983 Denis Lawson for Mr. Cinders
1982 Roy Hudd for Underneath The Arches
1981 Michael Crawford for Barnum
1980 Denis Quilley for Sweeney Todd
1979 Anton Rodgers for Songbook

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof – Novello Theatre – Review

Review of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at Novello Theatre in London

Debbie Allen’s all-black production of Tennessee Williams’ great play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof could, conceivably, be the first in a series of all-black stagings of the great poet-dramatist’s work. There’s already talk of his greatest play, A Streetcar Named Desire, being revived on Broadway with Halle Berry as Blanche du Bois.

And why not? Cat works its powerful theatrical magic regardless of the colour of its protagonists’ skins. One minute into the play and you forget about the unorthodox casting completely. True, it’s been updated from 1955 to sometime in the eighties, and an occasional word or phrase has been added to give the current casting more authenticity, but the play remains the emotional power-house it always was.

Despite its initial Broadway success, and regardless of all the prizes and plaudits it originally garnered, Williams continued tinkering with it throughout the rest of his life. He considered it his best, most personal play and wanted it to be as perfect as he could make it.

The text used in this production melds together several versions, most notably in the third act, which Cat’s original director, Elia Kazan, asked Williams to re-work for the Broadway premiere. And which Williams reluctantly did. Revivals in the mid seventies saw the ‘f’ word liberally sprinkled throughout Big Daddy’s already colourful dialogue.

The Big Daddy in Debbie Allen’s revival is James Earl-Jones, a powerhouse presence with a booming bass voice to match. A successful plantation owner in America’s Deep South, Big Daddy is dying of cancer. When the play opens, however, he and his put-upon, long-suffering wife, Big Mama (Phylicia Rashad) have been told the only thing wrong with him is a spastic colon.

But his sons Brick (Adrian Lester) and Gooper (Peter de Jersey) and their wives Maggie (Sanaa Lathan) and Mae (Nina Sosanya) know the truth. Gooper and Mae have five children with a sixth on the way; Maggie and Brick are childless. One of the issues that fuels the narrative is: who will inherit ‘28,000 acres of the richest land this side of the Valley Nine.’

Gooper, who’s a lawyer, is the older son and with all those grandchildren he has given Big Daddy (‘no-neck monsters’ as Maggie calls them) feels the inheritance should rightfully be his. Trouble is Big Daddy hates him, his wife and his screaming kids. Brick is his favourite, but he’s got a serious drink problem. Once a professional football player and now a sports commentator, he refuses to sleep with his wife, hobbles around his bedroom on a crutch as a result of a sprained ankle, and is seeking oblivion in whisky because of an incident that resulted in the death of his best friend Skipper. Both father and son are dying in their respective ways.

The theme at the heart of this quintessential family confrontation is the mendacious way people lead their lives, concealing the truth from one another and refusing to face reality. In a play turbo-charged with highspots, it is the great confrontation scene between Big Daddy and a hitherto taciturn Brick in which the emotional sluice gates are opened and the secrets and evasions come spewing out.

Though Adrian Lester’s Brick looks more like a golfer than a football jock, this great scene in the middle of the second act brings out the best in him. The fireworks, however, come from James Earl-Jones who, after a rather hesitant entrance in which bluster substituted for authority, settles in to a beautifully nuanced performance, very powerful and very moving.

Impressive, too, is Sanaa Lathan’s perfectly cast Maggie. Stunningly beautiful, outrageously sexy and with the vocal range demanded by the virtual monologue Williams entrusts to her in the play’s first half-hour, she’s far and away the best stage Maggie I’ve seen.

I was less convinced by Phylicia Rashad’s Big Mama, especially her opening scene which was all over the place and failed to establish a believable presence. The performance improved, but it isn’t ideal casting. The rest of the company do no more and no less than their roles demand.

Designer Morgan Large’s Mississippi Delta bed-sitting room cleverly uses slats for walls to underline the lack of privacy in the household in general and, in particular, where Maggie and Brick are concerned.

Allen’s workmanlike production redefines the play in terms of colour, but its overall impact could be more powerful.

CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.

Book tickets to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London

Cat cast announced

London cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof announced

The London cast of Broadway transfer Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been announced. James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Adrian Lester will star in the Tennessee Williams revival, directed again by Debbie Allen.

The all black production proved a sensation on Broadway with sold-out performances and critical acclaim. Multi award winning performers James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, Star Wars) and Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show) will reprise their roles of Big Daddy and Big Mama, joined by popular British actor Adrian Lester (Hustle).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is an intense and emotional drama centred on a powerful Southern family’s reunion for the birthday party of the patriarch Big Daddy. Williams won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1955 play.

More details to be announced. Sign up for westendtheatre.com’s newsletter to be the first to hear about booking.