Oliver Awards 2019 Reactions
It's come to that time of year again - the theatre awards season ended Sunday night with the Oliviers, London theatre's highest honour; and in the week I have joined/getting used to Twitter, this seemed perfect to have a finger permanently over the re-tweet button.
At the time of writing, I have a bit of time to kill in Manchester before my next show starts, so I thought I’d get to it. As per tradition, and this time with chai latte and cake, here's a run down of who went home happy, and who was snubbed.
Speaking of snubs, I just want to highlight one that I did think deserve a nomination or two - no, it's not Heathers, but another one that I saw just a few days before, and that was Hadestown. I loved how different it was musically to anything else on stage, and it was also some of the best lighting I saw last year; it was a shame that the show was not recognised 😢
Anyway, onto happier news, the biggest wins of the night on the musicals side went to the Broadway transfer of Come From Away, and Marianne Elliot’s revival of Sondheim’s Company (as predicted). Starting with Come From Away, it won the MasterCard Best New Musical award, as well as, Sound, Choreography and Outstanding Achievement in Music. As a fan of the cast recording, I’m really happy about this one, and fingers crossed, I may try and see it with my Mum and Dad sometime this year (I hope) 🙇
Company also came away with 4 wins, including Best Musical Revival and Set Design for Bunny Christie. They also won both the Support Acting in a Musical category: my runner up for last year’s Male Performance of the Year Jonathan Bailey firstly for playing formally-Amy-now-Jamie. I may have had a couple of weird looks from people on the tram on the way home yesterday when I found out he won. And secondly is for Broadway royalty herself Patti LuPone. No surprise there. Oh and her first few tweets these past couple of days....... priceless 💁♀️
These two may have lead the pack, leaving other nominees Fun Home and Six (confirmed, I WILL be seeing the tour in December!!!) in the dark along the way, but it didn’t mean that others were left out. The King and I won an award for Best Costume Design and Tina: the Tina Turner Musical’s Koran Holbrook-Smith won Best Actor in a Musical (beating off Zubin Varla, Ken Watanabe and Regents Park’s Little Shop of Horrors’ Marc Antolin (the only nomination that show received).
But perhaps the most interesting pick was probably to Best Actress in a Musical: while I was 90% certain Rosalie Craig would win (any other year, she probably would have done - in fact it could be said for Kelli O’Hara and Adrienne Warren too so who am I kidding), it went to Sharon D Clarke for Caroline Or Change. The reason why it’s interesting was that I didn’t see Sharon perform the role the night I went. But her performance of Lot’s Wife during the broadcast did give me chills. It’s no denying she has one of the most unique voices in the West End - and a very well deserved win 😁
In the play department, there were really only 2 big winners: The Inheritance (a near 7 hour epic apparently, à la Angels In America) at the Young Vic, winning Best New Play and Best Actor, Director (beating Marianne Elliot!!) and Lighting Design. The revival of Summer and Smoke wasn't too far behind, winning Best Revival, plus Patsy Ferran beat Anthony and Cleopatra's Sophie Okonedo for Best Actress.
Other winners include The Lieutenant of Innishmore, A Monster Calls, All About Eve, and Home I'm Darling (which is also touring soon, another one I'm trying to bring my parents to come to); all of these won 1 a piece, sharing the Best Supporting Acting awards, Entertainment and Family and New Comedy.
The final big winner was Sir Matthew Bourne, who won his 8th Olivier Award (a record win, tying with Judie Dench), winning this year's Special Award.
Away from the winners, Jason Manford was hosting again, and has been receiving much praise for his hosting - he does make a few good gags here and there, though his number with Janie Dee and Ruthie Henshall was a bit over the top 😑
As expected, there were performances from the nominated shows, including Welcome To The Rock by the Come From Away cast, Being Alive sung by Rosalie Craig, and young Harriet Turnbull performing Fun Home's Ring of Keys.
The In Memoriam section was Memory, in memory of Dame Gillian Lynne, performed by Beverley Knight, a former Grizabella herself.
Finally, we have not just 1, but 2 juggernauts celebrating 20 years in the West End this year: from Mamma Mia, Donna and the Dynamos made a guest appearance to present one of the awards, but sadly didn't perform. However, The Lion King DID perform - in fact, they opened the show, performing Circle Of Life, and as always when I hear that song, I had goosebumps up my arms.
I would recommend if you're interested, it's still on ITV Hub, so you can click here to view. So long for now Oliviers - till next year!
At the time of writing, I have a bit of time to kill in Manchester before my next show starts, so I thought I’d get to it. As per tradition, and this time with chai latte and cake, here's a run down of who went home happy, and who was snubbed.
Speaking of snubs, I just want to highlight one that I did think deserve a nomination or two - no, it's not Heathers, but another one that I saw just a few days before, and that was Hadestown. I loved how different it was musically to anything else on stage, and it was also some of the best lighting I saw last year; it was a shame that the show was not recognised 😢
Anyway, onto happier news, the biggest wins of the night on the musicals side went to the Broadway transfer of Come From Away, and Marianne Elliot’s revival of Sondheim’s Company (as predicted). Starting with Come From Away, it won the MasterCard Best New Musical award, as well as, Sound, Choreography and Outstanding Achievement in Music. As a fan of the cast recording, I’m really happy about this one, and fingers crossed, I may try and see it with my Mum and Dad sometime this year (I hope) 🙇
Company also came away with 4 wins, including Best Musical Revival and Set Design for Bunny Christie. They also won both the Support Acting in a Musical category: my runner up for last year’s Male Performance of the Year Jonathan Bailey firstly for playing formally-Amy-now-Jamie. I may have had a couple of weird looks from people on the tram on the way home yesterday when I found out he won. And secondly is for Broadway royalty herself Patti LuPone. No surprise there. Oh and her first few tweets these past couple of days....... priceless 💁♀️
These two may have lead the pack, leaving other nominees Fun Home and Six (confirmed, I WILL be seeing the tour in December!!!) in the dark along the way, but it didn’t mean that others were left out. The King and I won an award for Best Costume Design and Tina: the Tina Turner Musical’s Koran Holbrook-Smith won Best Actor in a Musical (beating off Zubin Varla, Ken Watanabe and Regents Park’s Little Shop of Horrors’ Marc Antolin (the only nomination that show received).
But perhaps the most interesting pick was probably to Best Actress in a Musical: while I was 90% certain Rosalie Craig would win (any other year, she probably would have done - in fact it could be said for Kelli O’Hara and Adrienne Warren too so who am I kidding), it went to Sharon D Clarke for Caroline Or Change. The reason why it’s interesting was that I didn’t see Sharon perform the role the night I went. But her performance of Lot’s Wife during the broadcast did give me chills. It’s no denying she has one of the most unique voices in the West End - and a very well deserved win 😁
In the play department, there were really only 2 big winners: The Inheritance (a near 7 hour epic apparently, à la Angels In America) at the Young Vic, winning Best New Play and Best Actor, Director (beating Marianne Elliot!!) and Lighting Design. The revival of Summer and Smoke wasn't too far behind, winning Best Revival, plus Patsy Ferran beat Anthony and Cleopatra's Sophie Okonedo for Best Actress.
Other winners include The Lieutenant of Innishmore, A Monster Calls, All About Eve, and Home I'm Darling (which is also touring soon, another one I'm trying to bring my parents to come to); all of these won 1 a piece, sharing the Best Supporting Acting awards, Entertainment and Family and New Comedy.
The final big winner was Sir Matthew Bourne, who won his 8th Olivier Award (a record win, tying with Judie Dench), winning this year's Special Award.
Away from the winners, Jason Manford was hosting again, and has been receiving much praise for his hosting - he does make a few good gags here and there, though his number with Janie Dee and Ruthie Henshall was a bit over the top 😑
As expected, there were performances from the nominated shows, including Welcome To The Rock by the Come From Away cast, Being Alive sung by Rosalie Craig, and young Harriet Turnbull performing Fun Home's Ring of Keys.
The In Memoriam section was Memory, in memory of Dame Gillian Lynne, performed by Beverley Knight, a former Grizabella herself.
Finally, we have not just 1, but 2 juggernauts celebrating 20 years in the West End this year: from Mamma Mia, Donna and the Dynamos made a guest appearance to present one of the awards, but sadly didn't perform. However, The Lion King DID perform - in fact, they opened the show, performing Circle Of Life, and as always when I hear that song, I had goosebumps up my arms.
I would recommend if you're interested, it's still on ITV Hub, so you can click here to view. So long for now Oliviers - till next year!
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