OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

Best New Comedy

2010 The Priory
2009 God of Carnage
2008 Rafta Rafta
2007 John Buchan’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
2006 Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras translated by Tom Stoppard

Best Comedy

2003 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2002 The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben
2001 Stones In His Pockets by Marie Jones
2000 The Memory Of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
1999 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick by Terry Johnson
1998 Popcorn by Ben Elton
1997 Art by Yasmina Reza
1996 Mojo by Jez Butterworth
1995 My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot
1994 Hysteria by Terry Johnson
1993 The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
1992 La Bête by David Hirson
1991 Out Of Order by Ray Cooney
1989/90 Single Spies by Alan Bennett
1988 Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
1987 Three Men On A Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott
1986 When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley
1985 A Chorus Of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn
1984 Up’N’Under by John Godber
1983 Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan
1982 Noises Off by Michael Frayn
1981 Steaming by Nell Dunn
1980 Educating Rita by Willy Russell
1979 Middle Age Spread by Roger Hall
1978 Filumena by Eduardo de Filippo, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
1977 Privates On Parade by Peter Nichols
1976 Donkey’s Years by Michael Frayn

Best Comedy Performance

1995 Niall Buggy for Dead Funny
1994 Griff Rhys Jones for An Absolute Turkey
1993 Simon Cadell for Travels With My Aunt
1992 Desmond Barrit for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Alan Cumming for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
1989/90 Michael Gambon for Man Of The Moment
1988 Alex Jennings for Too Clever By Half
1987 John Woodvine for The Henrys
1986 Bill Fraser for When We Are Married
1985 Michael Gambon for A Chorus Of Disapproval
1984 Maureen Lipman for See How They Run
1983 Griff Rhys Jones for Charley’s Aunt
1982 Geoffrey Hutchings for Poppy
1981 Rowan Atkinson for Rowan Atkinson in Revue
1980 Beryl Reid for Born In The Gardens
1979 Barry Humphries for A Night With Dame Edna
1978 Ian McKellen for The Alchemist
1977 Denis Quilley for Privates On Parade
1976 Penelope Keith for Donkey’s Years

BROADWAY UPDATE: Spiderman

BROADWAY UPDATE: Reeve Carney, Daniel Radcliffe, Christina Ricci, Lee Aaron Rosen, Douglas Hodge, Jonathan Groff and more…

SPIDER-MAN:

The pain of mounting Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark continues apace. Financial problems have dogged pre-production of the enormous project but it seems that rehearsals will finally begin this summer for a November opening at the Hilton Theatre.

Directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) with music by Bono, Alan Cumming dropped out as the Green Goblin, with rumours that Patrick Page (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas) will take the role.

The latest name attached to play Spidey himself is Reeve Carney, who’s just finished playing Ferdinand in Taymor’s new film version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, alongside Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper and Ben Whishaw.

The investment in mounting Spider-Man is believed to huge, and the show is having to  rip apart the Hilton Theatre to accommodate the lavish and complex sets.

BROADWAY MONEY:

The Broadway League, Broadway’s trade body, released its biannual report this week on the economic impact of spending by Broadway production companies, theatre operators and visitors drawn to New York by Broadway. The figures come close to $10 billion in the 2008-09 season, which is a whole lot of money.

Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, said that the figures, “remind us of how important Broadway is to tourism.” The majority of the money stemmed from visitors’ spending on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transport. Broadway also supported 84,400 jobs and generated $477.7 million in New York City taxes, according to the report. The increasingly lavish spending by producers on new productions (see above) also boosted the total.

We haven’t yet seen the Society of London Theatre’s recently published West End Theatre Audience Report 2010 to determine if a calculation on the West End Theatre’s economic impact on London has been made, but the last public figure was way back in 1997 in their  Wyndham Report. This tallied the impact at just over £1 billion. Given that box office revenue was over half a billion pounds in 2009 we imagine the economic impact has gone up somewhat since then.

TALENT UPDATE:

Ricci Time: She didn’t have the good sense to get a part in The Addams Family on Broadway (!) so Christina Ricci is making do by joining the Tony nominated play Time Stands Still in September, replacing Alicia Silverstone in the play that also stars Laura Linney. Linney is currently filming her new Showtime TV series The Big C.

Hunk-with-talent Alert: Lee Aaron Rosen has just wowed critics in the Atlantic Theater Company’s new production of English playwright Moira Buffini’s Gabriel at the Linda Gross Theater in New York. The play first premiered at the Soho Theatre in London in 1997. Needless-to-say that Mr Rosen is being pitched as “one to watch” for multiple reasons.

Dan Does Dance: Daniel Radcliffe is putting in the practice for his Broadway role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, working with a vocal and dance coach in London ahead of rehearsals beginning February 2011. Now that’s forward-planning! The show will be directed by Rob Ashford and co-star Rose Hemingway.

The Mask of Zorba: Antonio Banderas has told WENN that he plans to go back to Broadway next year in a revival of the 1968 Kander and Ebb musical Zorba  – based on Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel Zorba The Greek.

OTHER NEWS:

Hodge Honour: Awards guru Tom O’Neil in the LA Times thinks that Douglas Hodge is a shoo-in for the Best Actor in a Musical Tony award, to be announced in June. Hodge received fabulous notices for his performance as Albin in the Broadway transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of La Cage Aux Folles. 

Glad to be Glee: It seems that the spitting and fury over Newsweek’s recent article by arts critic Ramin Setoodeh, arguing that gay actors can’t be taken seriously in straight roles, has finally subsided. Much of Broadway has been up in arms over the article – in which Setoodeh refers to Sean Hayes’ performance in Broadway’s Promises, Promises as “weird seeing Hayes play straight,” and also references Glee’s Jonathan Groff. Glee creator Ryan Murphy waged in calling for an all-out boycott of the magazine for its homophobic opinion. It now seems that Ramin and Ryan have made up. Groff, who is openly gay, will be winging his way to London in the summer to appear alongside Simon Russell-Beale in Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre.

REVIEWS:

Popular theatre blog West End Whingers made a Broadway sojourn recently and posted a great round-up of what to see – and what not.