[h2]Awards Update – Here’s a summary of the winners of the principal awards for 2013.[/h2]
- Best New Play: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at the National’s Cottesloe theatre and the Apollo theatre
- Best Supporting Actor: Richard McCabe for The Audience at the Gielgud theatre
- Best Supporting Actress: Nicola Walker for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at the National’s Cottesloe theatre
- Best Actor: Luke Treadaway for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at the National’s Cottesloe theatre and the Apollo theatre
- Best Actress: Helen Mirren for The Audience at the Gielgud theatre
- Best Director: Marianne Elliott for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at the National’s Cottesloe theatre and the Apollo theatre
- Best Choreographer: Bill Deamer for Top Hat at the Aldwych theatre
- Best Actor in a Musical: Michael Ball for Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi theatre
- Best Actress in a Musical: Imelda Staunton for Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi theatre
- Best Musical: Top Hat at the Aldwych theatre
- Best New Dance Production: Aeternum, by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
- Best New Opera Production: Einstein On The Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass with choreography by Lucinda Childs at the Barbican theatre
- Best Set Design: Bunny Christie and Finn Ross for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
- Best Costume Design: Jon Morrell for Top Hat at the Aldwych theatre
- Special Awards: Choreographer Gillian Lynne and Playwright Michael Frayn both won special awards
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[h2]It’s Awards Time!![/h2]
A bit like a thespians equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest – The Olivier Awards 2013 is here and always promises to be an incredible evening of celebration, theatrical ‘back-patting’ and stunning live performances. (apart from the year Russ Abbott presented the awards – remember that!!!)
The UK’s most prestigious theatrical event – The Olivier Awards – is on Sunday 28 April and broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 18:00 or see highlights on ITV1 at 22:15
This year hosted by the brill Sheridan Smith (Legally Blonde the Musical, Benidorm, Royale Family, etc) and Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) and coming from the Royal Opera House, its an occasion to celebrate all the brilliant achievements from the world of theatre.
As well as the massive array of recognition form all principles of the theatre industry, the night includes the best live performances. Glee Fans (!) will be delighted to hear that Matthew Morrison (Mr Schuester) and Broadway sensation Idina Menzel (Wicked) will be giving a special performance.
Nominees performing this year include Will Young alongside the cast of Cabaret, The Bodyguard’s Heather Headley and the casts of A Chorus Line and Top Hat, while former Busted star James Bourne will give an exclusive performance of one of the songs from his nominated show, Loserville.
[blockquote]If he were alive today, the king of the awards would have been Shakespeare – who would have seen his plays receive a total of 65 awards across performance and creative categories.[/blockquote]
[h3]How you can see it[/h3]
Well you could take trip down to Covent Garden, as a big celebration is usually staged outside the Royal Opera House and broadcast on big screens in the Piazza outside the venue. You may even have been lucky to have gotten yourself a ticket – if you have let us know.
Failing that you can tune in live on BBC Radio 2 from 6pm, starting with all the red carpet ‘luvvie cheek kissing’, or catch the highlights on TV a few minutes after the event ends on ITV 1 at 10:15pm – all happening Sunday 28 April 2013.
[h3]History of the Awards[/h3]
Someone asked me this week why they named the awards after a Charles Dickens based Musical !!!. Of course the Awards – (The Olivier Awards that Is NOT the Oliver Awards!) – are named after one of Britain’s most celebrated actors and theatrical legend Lord Laurence Olivier.
Aged 21, Olivier was the youngest actor every to be knighted, and aside from an illustrious Oscar award winning film career, he was hailed as one of our all time best leading stage actors, with stand out title performances in Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet & Macbeth and as Archie Rice in The Entertainer.
The stage awards were inaugurated in 1976, originally called the Society of West End Theatre Awards. In 1979, Lord Olivier was given the Society’s Special Award in celebration of his contribution to London theatre, but it was not until 1984 that the hugely acclaimed theatrical peer agreed to his name being associated with the awards and they became the Olivier Awards.
In the early years, the Awards were known as the ‘Urnies’ because the winners were presented with a specially commissioned blue Wedgwood urn. These days the winners are presented with a solid bronze statuette depicting the young Olivier as Henry V at the Old Vic in 1937. Each statue weighs a whopping 1.6kg.
[h3]Top Winners[/h3]
Starting as she meant to go on, Dame Judi Dench won an award at the second ever ceremony in 1977, and has gone on to top the lot in terms of recipient overdose; not only has she won in both categories but in 1996 she did the double in the same year, winning Best Actress for Absolute Hell and Best Actress in a Musical for A Little Night Music.
Although, if he were alive today, the king of the awards would have been Shakespeare – who would have seen his plays receive a total of 65 awards across performance and creative categories.
