The Almeida Theatre’s Chimerica and Broadway show The Book of Mormon dominate this year’s Olivier Awards wins.
The 38th annual Olivier Awards have been announced at the Royal Opera House in London.
In a glittering ceremony on Sunday 13 April 2014, the winners of the annual Olivier Awards organised by the Society of London Theeatre were announced.
Highlights included:
- The Almeida was the big winner of the night with Chimerica and Ghosts scooping eight Awards
- Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica had most wins with five Awards including Best New Play and Best Director for Lyndsey Turner
- Lesley Manville was named Best Actress for her role in Ghosts, which also won Best Revival and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jack Lowden
- The Book Of Mormon scooped most awards in the musicals categories winning four Awards including Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Gavin Creel
- The National Theatre won awards for Rory Kinnear named Best Actor for his performance as Iago in Othello, Sharon D Clarke winning Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Amen Corner and Sir Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr jointly receiving a Special Award for outstanding achievement
- Theatre impresario Michael White also received a Special Award from supermodel Kate Moss and Nigel Planer
- Les Misérables won the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award voted by the public
The glamorous ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London featured 14 live performances including ABBA’s Benny and Björn reuniting to celebrate 15 years of the hit show MAMMA MIA!
Other performances included Broadway star and Tony Award-winner Bernadette Peters and international opera star Joseph Calleja, and live performances from all the nominated productions in both the Best New Musical and Audience Award categories.
Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica, which enjoyed sell out runs at the Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter Theatre, was the evening’s biggest winner with five Awards including Best New Play, Best Director for Lyndsey Turner and the Award for Best Set Design for Es Devlin.
Chimerica’s Tim Lutkin and Finn Ross also shared the Best Lighting Design Award with Paul Pyant and Jon Driscoll for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, and Carolyn Downing jointly won Best Sound for Chimerica with Gareth Owen for Merrily We Roll Along.
Lesley Manville scooped the Best Actress gong for her performance in Ghosts, another Almeida Theatre transfer, this time to Trafalgar Studios, which also won Best Revival and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jack Lowden.
Rory Kinnear won Best Actor for his portrayal of Iago in Othello and Sharon D Clarke was named Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Amen Corner, both National Theatre productions.
The Book Of Mormon dominated the musicals categories winning four Awards including Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical for Gavin Creel, Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Stephen Ashfield and Best Theatre Choreographer for Casey Nicholaw.
Zrinka Cvitešić won Best Actress in a Musical for Once at the Phoenix Theatre, which was also awarded the Sound Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music won by Martin Lowe for composition and arrangements and Glenn Hansard and Markéta Irglová for music and lyrics.
Merrily We Roll Along was named Best Musical Revival for its critically acclaimed run at the Harold Pinter Theatre, Jeeves & Wooster In Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of York’s Theatre was awarded Best New Comedy and the Royal Opera House’s first West End transfer The Wind In The Willows at the Duchess Theatre won Best Entertainment and Family.
Mark Thompson was awarded Best Costume Design for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre was presented to Handbagged at the Tricycle Theatre, which has now begun a West End run.
In the dance categories, Best New Dance Production was won by Eastman – Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Sadler’s Wells for Puz/zle at Sadler’s Wells and Oustanding Achievement in Dance went to Michael Hulls for his body of lighting work including Ballet Boyz – The Talent also at Sadler’s Wells.
In the opera section, Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Royal Opera House was named Best New Opera Production and Outstanding Achievement in Opera was won by English Touring Opera for its brave and challenging touring productions at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House.
This year’s Special Award winners for outstanding achievement were legendary theatre impresario Michael White, who was presented his Award by Kate Moss and Nigel Planer, and the National Theatre’s Sir Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, who received their joint Award from James Corden and Rory Kinnear in recognition of their decade in charge of the Southbank venue.
The publicly voted BBC Radio 2 Audience Award was presented to Les Misérables for a second time.
The awards were hosted by Stephen Mangan and Gemma Arterton
WINNERS 2014 – SEE A LIST OF ALL WINNERS
