OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Director Winners
June 16, 2010
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Director Winners
Best Director
2012 Matthew Warchus for Matilda The Musical
2011 Howard Davies for The White Guard
2010 Rupert Goold for Enron
2009 John Tiffany for Black Watch
2008 Rupert Goold for Macbeth
2007 Dominic Cooke for The Crucible
2006 Richard Eyre for Hedda Gabler
2005 Nicholas Hytner for The History Boys
2004 Michael Grandage for Caligula
2003 Sam Mendes for Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya
2002 Michael Boyd for Henry VI Parts I, II and III and Richard III
2001 Howard Davies for All My Sons
2000 Trevor Nunn for Summerfolk, The Merchant Of Venice and Troilus And Cressida
1999 Howard Davies for The Iceman Cometh
1998 Richard Eyre for King Lear
1997 Des McAnuff for Tommy
1996 Sam Mendes for Company and The Glass Menagerie
1989/90 Michael Bogdanov for The Wars Of The Roses
1988 Deborah Warner for Titus Andronicus
1987 Declan Donnellan for The Cid, Twelfth Night and Macbeth
1986 Bill Alexander for The Merry Wives Of Windsor
1985 Bill Bryden for The Mysteries
1984 Christopher Morahan for Wild Honey
1983 Terry Hands for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 Richard Eyre for Guys And Dolls
1981 Peter Wood for On the Razzle
1980 Trevor Nunn and John Caird for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 Michael Bogdanov for The Taming Of The Shrew
1978 Terry Hands for Henry VI
1977 Clifford Williams for Wild Oats
1976 Jonathan Miller for The Three Sisters
Best Director of a Play
1995 Declan Donnellan for As You Like It
1994 Stephen Daldry for Machinal
1993 Stephen Daldry for An Inspector Calls
1992 Deborah Warner for Hedda Gabler
1991 David Thacker for Pericles
Best Director of a Musical
1995 Scott Ellis for She Loves Me
1994 Declan Donnellan for Sweeney Todd
1993 Nicholas Hytner for Carousel
1992 Simon Callow for Carmen Jones
1991 Richard Jones for Into The Woods
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Set and Design Winners
June 9, 2010
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Set and Design Winners
Best Set Design
2012 Matilda The Musical designed by Rob Howell
2011 The White Guard designed by Bunny Christie
2010 Jerusalem designed by Ultz
2009 August: Osage County designed by Todd Rosenthal
2008 Rae Smith and the Handspring Puppet Company for War Horse
2007 Sunday In The Park With George, designed by David Farley and Timothy Bird
2006 Hedda Gabler designed by Rob Howell
2005 His Dark Materials designed by Giles Cadle
2004 Hitchcock Blonde designed by William Dudley
2003 A Streetcar Named Desire designed by Bunny Christie
Best Set Designer
2002 Tim Hatley for Humble Boy and Private Lives
2001 William Dudley for All My Sons
2000 Rob Howell for Richard III, Troilus and Cressida and Vassa
1999 Anthony Ward for Oklahoma!
1998 Tim Goodchild for Three Hours After Marriage
1997 Tim Hatley for Stanley
1996 John Napier for Burning Blue
1995 Stephen Brimson Lewis for Design for Living and Les Parents Terribles
1994 Mark Thompson for Hysteria
1993 Ian MacNeil for An Inspector Calls
1992 Mark Thompson for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Mark Thompson for The Wind In The Willows
Designer of the Year
1989/90Bob Crowley for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hedda Gabler, Ghetto and The Plantagenets
1988 Richard Hudson for his season at The Old Vic
1987 Lucio Fanti (with Design Team) for The Hairy Ape
1986 William Dudley for Futurists, Kafka’s Dick and The Merry Wives Of Windsor
1985 William Dudley for The Mysteries and The Critics
1984 John Gunter for Wild Honey
1983 Ralph Koltai for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 John Gunter for Guys And Dolls
1981 Carl Toms for The Provok’d Wife
1980 John Napier and Dermot Hayes for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 William Dudley for Undiscovered Country
1978 Ralph Koltai for Brand
1977 John Napier for King Lear
1976 Farrah for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V
All My Sons – Reviews Round-up
June 4, 2010
A round-up of reviews of All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London, starring David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker.
STAR RATINGS
The Sunday Times 
The Independent
The Telegraph
The Guardian
Evening Standard
THE TELEGRAPH
Charles Spencer
IN SUMMARY: This is a stunning production of a modern classic and one that those who see it will never forget.
THE PLAY: This is a play of extraordinary power and emotional depth, and when it is performed as wonderfully as it is here, Miller’s theme of man’s responsibility towards his fellow men feels genuinely noble rather than merely didactic.
THE CAST: The great David Suchet has never been better than he is here as the initially jovial Joe Keller, who seems to shrink within his own body as the chickens come home to roost; Zoë Wanamaker is also outstanding as his wife, clenched with grief and driven almost mad by the lie on which her life is based, and there is terrific support from Stephen Campbell Moore as the honourable surviving son and Jemima Rooper as the girlfriend who delivers the coup de grace.
THE GUARDIAN
Michael Billington
IN SUMMARY: Not only is the acting tremendous and every visual detail precise, Davies also makes you realise Miller’s play is a portrait of a society as well as of a flawed individual.
THE PLAY: You could quarrel with Miller’s occasional melodramatic touches, in particular the fiancee’s revelation of a crucial letter she has kept hidden for three years. But the power of the production lies in the stripping away of protective illusion.
THE CAST: David Suchet’s superb Joe is a man who conceals his guilt under a backyard bonhomie… Zoe Wanamaker is no less astonishing as Joe’s wife…. There is fine support from Stephen Campbell Moore as the impossibly idealistic surviving son, and from Jemima Rooper as the tenacious fiancee.
Read the review
EVENING STANDARD
Henry Hitchings
IN SUMMARY: You won’t find better performances in the West End right now than those of David Suchet and Zoë Wanamaker in Howard Davies’s meaty, satisfying production of this 1947 Arthur Miller play.
THE PLAY: Of all Miller’s plays, this one throbs most strongly with the influence of Ibsen. It compellingly charts the relationship between actions and their morbid psychological causes, and there’s a note of Nordic mysticism beneath its richly furbished reality.
THE CAST: There’s excellent work from Stephen Campbell Moore as Joe’s affectionate, attentive son Chris, and from Jemima Rooper, warm and twinkly but soulful as Ann, his brother’s one-time lover and the woman he now aspires to marry. Wanamaker is husky, poised and poignant, a model of tortured seriousness. It’s Suchet, though, who dominates. He invests Joe with a lovely geniality, yet also with gravitas and a wounded, anxious manliness. Every nuance of his performance feels perfectly weighted.
Read the review
THE INDEPENDENT
Paul Taylor
IN SUMMARY: … watching Howard Davies’s emotionally searching, expertly acted revival, you’re persuaded that this is a small price to pay for the play’s fierce moral fervour and the psychological penetration of its insights.
THE PLAY: Miller’s Ibsenite plot occasionally creaks and is marred by certain implausibilities; but while it lasts, you are swept up by the production’s splendid self-conviction.
THE CAST: Zoë Wanamaker is superlative in the role, showing you a woman who is a heartbreaking and deeply unnerving mix of agitated neurosis and indomitable will… David Suchet is on magnificent form as Joe Keller… Stephen Campbell Moore, in a finely judged performance, lets you see, as well as the principled idealism, the aggrieved priggishness of a youth who affects to despise his father’s soiled money without decisively renouncing it.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Christopher Hart
IN SUMMARY: Along with some excellent acting, we can admire all over again the way in which this family drama also perfectly illustrates how man’s responsibility to his fellow man goes way beyond his family and the domestic economy.
THE PLAY: Act I takes a while to warm up, and there is little hint of the drama to come. You’re reminded here of what Miller’s plays offer and what they don’t: compelling moral drama, rich characterisation, humanity, yes; but no real wildness, madness or mystery.
THE CAST: You’re riveted not least by the acting. David Suchet, as Joe Keller, is magnificent… Less convincing is Zoë Wanamaker, as Kate. Her fragility seems too obvious, and her sudden grief too actorly: arms over the head, animal howl, slow subsidence to the floor… Most compelling of all, though, is Chris, superbly played by Stephen Campbell Moore. Here is a good man who is also fascinating, tormented, passionate, upright and angry, the epitome of the Miller hero, set on doing the right thing and disgusted when others don’t. He is the play’s moral centre, and Moore invests him with all the power and presence to be so.
Book tickets to All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London
New shows this week
May 25, 2010
The Fantasticks, The Crucible, All My Sons and Dream of the Dog
New shows starting this week in the West End include long-running Broadway musical The Fantasticks, which began previews at the Duchess Theatre last night. Also previewing from last night is The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s play at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. Another Arthur Miller play, All My Sons, gets its first night premiere on Thursday 27 May at the Apollo Theatre starring David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker. Also opening on Thursday 27 May is South African-set Dream of the Dog at the Trafalgar Studios starring Janet Suzman. Finally, previewing from this Thursday is Simon Gray’s play The Late Middle Classes at the Donmar Warehouse starring Helen McCrory, Eleanor Bron and Robert Glenister.
Duchess Theatre, from 24 May 2010
The world’s longest-running musical finally makes it to London after first wowing audiences on Broadway 50 years ago. Since its debut in 1960 it has played in over 2,000 cities and towns in 67 countries worldwide, and now makes its UK debut at the Duchess Theatre in London.
This brand new production of the much-loved musical is directed by Amon Miyamoto, bringing a fresh visual, emotional and musical energy to the show. The Fantasticks tells an allegorical story about two neighbouring fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love, because they know children always do what their parents forbid.
After the children do fall in love, they discover their fathers’ plot and each go off and experience the world. Finally, they return to each other and appreciate the love they had after learning to recognise their true feelings.
An impressive cast includes David Burt (Les Miserables, Chess, Taboo), Edward Petherbridge (The Woman in White ), Clive Rowe (Chicago, Caroline, or Change), Carl Au (High School Musical), Luke Brady (Nightfall), Hadley Fraser (Peter Pan), Paul Hunter (The Fahrenheit Twins), and Lorna Want (Footloose The Musical).
Special Offer: Save £20 on tickets to The Fantasticks at the Duchess Theatre in London
Open Air Theare Regent’s Park, from 24 May 2010
One of Arthur Miller’s greatest plays, The Crucible is set amid the Salem witch hunts of the 1600s, in which a community is divided by jealousy and superstition.
The cast of this powerful new production includes Patrick O’Kane, Emma Cunniffe, Emily Taaffe, Oliver Ford Davies, Lucy May Barker, Charlie Cameron, Philip Cumbus, Anni Domingo, Susan Engel, Christopher Fulford, Patrick Godfrey, Christopher Hunter, Bettrys Jones, Paul Kemp, Geoff Leesley, Alexandra Mathie, Gary Milner, Ellie Paskell and Malcolm Rogers. The director is Timothy Sheader.
Special Offer: Save £10 on tickets to The Crucible at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park
Apollo Theatre, opens 27 May 2010
All My Sons is Arthur Miller’s compelling story of forbidden love, loyalty, guilt and the corrupting power of greed, and marks the first great success of Miller’s influential career.
Acclaimed actors David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker return to the West End to star in the play, directed by Howard Davies.
In All My Sons, Joe Keller (Suchet) is alleged to have supplied World War II fighter planes with defective engines, leading to the deaths of innocent pilots, a crime for which his business partner took the fall. One of Keller’s sons, himself a pilot, is thought to have been killed in action. His mother (Wanamaker) can’t accept his death and equally can’t accept that her dead son’s fiancée has transferred her affections to her other son. The confrontations that ensue lead to the uncovering of a world-shaking family secret.
Director Howard Davies previously won a Laurence Olivier Award for his 2000 production of All My Sons, which was staged at the National Theatre.
Book tickets to All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London
Trafalgar Studios, from 27 May 2010
Oscar nominated actress Janet Suzman returns to London to star in Dream of the Dog, a rich and complex story set in South Africa. Dream Of The Dog takes an unflinching look at the twin mantras of the post-Mandela age, reconciliation and forgiveness, asking whether black and white can ever live together peacefully.
The cast includes Janet Suzman alongside Ariyon Bakare, Gracy Goldman and Bernard Kay, is written by Craig Higginson and directed by Katie McAleese.
Special offer: Save £5 on tickets to Dream of the Dog at the Trafalgar Studios in London
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DAVID SUCHET in All My Sons
May 13, 2010
TV’s Poirot returns to the West End stage in Arthur Miller classic
David Suchet
David Suchet is back in the West End this season to play Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s powerful drama All My Sons.
Acting alongside Zoe Wanamaker, the production is directed by Howard Davies and marks the first great success of Arthur Miller’s influential career.
A compelling story of love, guilt and the corrupting power of greed, Suchet plays Joe Keller, who is alleged to have supplied World War II fighter planes with defective engines, leading to the deaths of innocent pilots – a crime for which his business partner took the fall. One of Keller’s sons, himself a pilot, is thought to have been killed in action. But his mother (Zoe Wanamaker) can’t accept his death and equally, can’t accept that her dead son’s fiancee has transferred her affections to her other son. The confrontations that ensue lead to the uncovering of a shameful family secret…
Book tickets to All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London
ZOE WANAMAKER in All My Sons
May 13, 2010
Acclaimed actress to star in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre
Zoe Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker will return to the London stage this spring starring alongside David Suchet (Poirot) in Arthur Miller’s classic play All My Sons. Zoë Wanamaker was born in 1949 in New York, the daughter of American film and stage actor Sam Wanamker.
Her numerous credits include TV sitcom My Family, and stage roles in Piaf, Mother Courage, Loot, Electra (Olivier Award winner), Boston Marriage and Awake and Sing!
Book tickets to All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in London
