Oliviers 2022 Reactions

Source: 
Oliviers 2022: Cabaret and Life of Pi sweep theatre awards - BBC News

 If there was one way to say to the community that theatre is well and truly back, it is to bring back the Olivier Awards. Having skipped last year for obvious reasons, the awards were back in the Royal Albert Hall, almost as if they had never left. 

We still had all the performances, this time with every single nominated show for Best New Musical and Best Musical Revival getting a chance to shine (as they should); Jason Manford was still hosting, and might I add was on FIRE; there was still the usual trying to get through the tears and snot during acceptance speeches. And of course plenty of digs at this government for their decisions concerning the arts during the pandemic... and OSCARS reference as one of the first big ceremonies since that... err, explosive encounter. 

Now we'll split off into the Musical winners, then the Plays, and wrap things off with the performances and other bits, as some of them blew me away... 

When the nominations came out, it seemed that it was a two-horse between 2 musicals in particular, both of whom were in the Revival category. But in the end, let's face it, it was always going to be Cabaret coming out on top. 

Source: 
Oliviers 2022: Cabaret and Life of Pi sweep theatre awards - BBC News

The hottest ticket in town, and the one everyone was talking about, completely steamrolled over the musical wins, winning 7 and getting a further 4 nominations; Best Director for Rebecca Frecknall; Best Sound Design; Best Musical Revival; and all four acting-in-a-musical categories. 

Those being Elliot Levey as Herr Schultz and Liza Sadovy as Fraulein Schneider; and the very unsurprising wins of Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee and Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles. I am one that remembers I'd Do Anything, aka the search for Nancy in 2008 very well; and to see Jessie go from that to where she is... I am so proud of her! 

Because Cabaret did a near-Hamilton, it left a lot of the other nominees very slim pickings at best; but they were pretty spread out in all honesty. The London transfer of Moulin Rouge picked up Best Costume, while the very-well-received revival of Anything Goes only picked up Choreography out of its 9 nominations - no surprise though for Kathleen Marshall's tap numbers. Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical grabbed Best Original Score or New Orchestrations, and the big one, Mastercard Best New Musical was won by Back to the Future: The Musical. 

It therefore meant that other nominated shows such as Frozen, The Drifter's Girl and the revival of Spring Awakening at the Almeida went away empty-handed. 

And if I may add in a couple of snub. My theatre tribe would kill me if I didn't mention how gutted they all were that the fabulous Carly Mercedes-Dyer didn't win Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical (she was the best thing about Anything Goes after all); but I would also to like ask the Olivier committee where was the love for Carousel at Regents Park? I LOVED that show; so I felt it should have at least been nominated in the Best Revival of a Musical category and orchestrations, perhaps choreography too.

Before moving on the Plays, I want to get my sad feelings over with: the Best Entertainment or Comedy Play did not go to Choir of Man. Instead, it went to Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), which to be fair I have heard very good things about. And it's not the end of the road of Choir of Man, as it is returning to the Arts Theatre in the Autumn. 

Source: 
Oliviers 2022: Cabaret and Life of Pi sweep theatre awards - BBC News

Now onto the Play that took the night, just like Cabaret did. 

Currently playing at the Wyndham's Theatre, the stage adaptation of the smash hit Life of Pi took home 5 gongs; 2 creative ones in Lighting, and Set; Best Actor for Hiran Abeysekera; and in an first, the 7 actors who play the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, took home the Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play.

 That tiger certainly made an impression both on stage (more on that in a bit), and on the green carpet. As a fan of puppetry in almost any medium from when I was a kid getting terrified of Sesame Street's Cookie Monster, I am SO for recognising the work that people bring to make the puppet alive. 

Source: 
Oliviers 2022: Cabaret and Life of Pi sweep theatre awards - BBC News

The other notable wins in the Play categories were for Constellations at the Donmar Warehouse, and The Normal Heart at the National Theatre. Constellations won Best Revival, as well as Best Actress, giving Sheila Atim her 2nd win. 

For The Normal Heart, Liz Carr won Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She had already made history as the first disabled actress to play Dr Emma Brookner in The Normal Heart, and her speech (what we saw of it) was very impassioned. She has also called for special performances that enforce social distancing and mask-wearing in theatres to encourage more vulnerable people back to the theatre.

 Now finally, as said before, let's go onto the performances on the night. 

We had every nominated musical perform, as stated before; opening the show with For The First Time in Forever from Frozen, it lead into numbers from The Drifter's Girl, Johnny B. Goode from Back to the Future Get Up, Stand Up!, Welcome to the Moulin Rouge from Moulin Rouge; and possibly my personal favourite of the show performances, a haunting rendition of Song of Purple Summer from the cast of Spring Awakening. That show is rumoured to transfer, and I hope that's true - love that score! 

With the final two shows that performed, Anything Goes and Cabaret, both have new stars taking the reigns, and the broadcast took the time to spotlight their talents. Anything Goes will be going out on tour soon, and so their case came and performed THAT title number, tap and all; and yes, that included Kerry Ellis, who has taken over the role of Reno Sweeney. And with Cabaret, THAT title number was performed by new Sally Bowles, Amy Lennox, a previous Olivier nominee herself for Kinky Boots. If that performance is just a snippet of what happens in the Kit Kat Club, and Buckley was at that level if not higher... holy moly no wonder she won the Oliver. 

We EVEN had a very special piece from The Life of Pi, in which they got to show off some of their puppetry; from butterflies, to a zebra, a pair of orangutans, and of course THAT TIGER. If that show wasn't on my list before (can't remember honestly) it certainly is now. 

But as with any year, among the celebrations, the awards took the time to pause and reflect. With the war going on in Ukraine, we had a moving performance of their National Anthem. And of course the In Memoriam piece, accompanied by the cast of Dear Evan Hansen and a choir of students from Arts Ed. 

And of course the biggest tribute of the year HAD to be for the one and only Stephen Sondheim who died last year. Introducing this special number was Maria Friedman, a long-time friend and collaborator of Sondheim. 

And in her speech, she said something that made me cheer out loud - shouting out the swings, understudies and alternates who kept theatre alive. 

Source: 
Oliviers 2022: Cabaret and Life of Pi sweep theatre awards - BBC News

I thought it couldn't get any better but then it turned out that a selection of understudies, standbys and alternates from all the nominated musicals would be performing this special tribute moment. Along with the Arts Ed choir, which number was it? Our Time from Merrily We Roll Along - you couldn't get more perfect than that. 

Despite the usual problems of the ceremony airing at past 10pm instead of a more reasonable time, and a few snubs, I call this a successful awards due to them being one thing: celebratory in all areas of the theatre industry. After a year or two we've had, to casts, creative teams and crew. 

Let's see what the following year brings....