We are really looking forward to the Olivier Awards tomorrow, Sunday 14th April. The ceremony itself takes place in the early evening at the Royal Albert Hall, and we’ll be watching the telecast at 10:15pm on ITV.
We won’t be posting predictions per se because what do we know? But we will share our thoughts on some categories below.
One of many reasons we won’t be sharing actual predictions is that we didn’t see two of the biggest shows of the year! This was a choice, we made a conscious decision not to see A Little Life (adapted by Koen Tachelet, Ivo van Hove & Hanya Yanagihara, directed by Ivo van Hove, at the Harold Pinter Theatre and then the Savoy) and Sunset Boulevard (book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Jamie Lloyd, at the Savoy Theatre). This was largely due to taste, we’re not huge fans of Lloyd Webber’s musicals and though we used to really enjoy his work, recent Jamie Lloyd productions have left us feeling a bit cold. Same goes for van Hove, and we also were partly swayed against A Little Life by the knowledge that it features graphic depictions of repeated abuse.
Because we missed these standouts, and other key productions such as Soho Place’s Medea and The Little Big Things, Shirley Valentine starring Sheridan Smith, and Clydes at the Donmar Warehouse, there are only two categories at this year’s awards where we’ve seen all the nominees. Below we give our thoughts on categories where we’ve seen at least 75% of the nominees.
Performers
There are 8 categories for performances and based on the above metric we can comment on 5 of them.
MUSICALS
We’ve unintentionally started with one of the categories we find the toughest. Of course, we can’t comment on Thaxton’s performance but the rest of these performances were sensational. Jack Wolfe’s rendition of ‘I’m Alive’ stuck with us for weeks. Jak Malone broke our hearts as closed-off secretary Hester Leggett (while also shining in other roles!). But we can’t help but root for Cedric Neal who brought the house down every night in Guys & Dolls as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.
We adored Daniel Mays’s bumbling, blundering sweetheart Nathan Detroit. And David Cumming is wonderful and hilarious as bashful brainiac Charles Cholmondeley, the genius behind the eponymous ‘Operation Mincemeat’. We think Charlie Stemp probably edges it with his performance as Bobby in Crazy for You, where he does it all: acting, singing, physical comedy, and so much dancing it verges on the acrobatic. The really impressive thing is how effortless he makes it seem.
Here’s a category where we assume the one we missed will probably take home the award. We’ve heard nothing but gushing praise for Nicole Scherzinger’s performance. Caissie Levy’s performance as devastated mother Diana, not to mention her powerhouse vocals, are eminently worthy. Natasha Hodgson barely leaves the stage and ably embodies the swagger and bravado of Naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu. We have a special place in our hearts for Marisha Wallace’s performance as Miss Adelaide, watching her go from wilting flower to defiant wife was a joy – and that voice!
PLAYS
We come to one of two categories we can speak on with absolute authority because we’ve seen all five performances…. And we’re still really torn. Tanya Reynolds has a lot to do as intimidated but enthusiastic secretary Mei in A Mirror, set in a totalitarian regime. The dearly departed Haydn Gwynne played several roles in When Winston Went to War With the Wireless, ranging from a coquettish radio singer to a convincing, stern Stanley Baldwin – should she win, we implore you not to assume it’s due to her untimely death from a short illness last October. Lorraine Ashbourne had us all in stitches as lively Aunty Carol in Till the Stars Come Down. She was still dropping some lines in the early preview we saw, but we’ve no doubt that she had audiences rolling in the aisles throughout the run. This is a tough one to call.
This is another tough category. Again, we assume this will go to the performance we didn’t see – James Norton for A Little Life. Andrew Scott is brilliant in everything, and Vanya is no exception. While we left questioning the purpose of a one-man Vanya, there is no doubt he played all the parts with precision and immense talent. David Tennant’s Macbeth (which we wrote about last month) brought new dimensions to the bloody tyrant with touching effect. If you squinted you could believe you were watching Gareth Southgate on the Olivier stage, thanks to the spot-on performance of Joseph Fiennes. Ultimately, for us it’s Mark Gatiss’s turn as aging, frustrated John Gielgud that takes it – but that might be because it was our number one favourite show from last year.
Productions
We’re pleased to be able to comment on 3 of the 4 categories here.
MUSICALS
Another tough category. Next to Normal was excellent, a compelling tale of grief and resilience. A Strange Loop was innovative and daring, this won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022 as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But we wonder whether its American viewpoint might mean it loses out to more quintessentially British fare. Which brings us to Operation Mincemeat. We didn’t mince words when we came out of this one, rather late in the day. We thought it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype and it delivered all that and more. We’ll be really surprised if it doesn’t win, given that all the individual performers also received nominations.
PLAYS
We find this category difficult for a different reason. Of the three productions we’ve seen, we didn’t really rate two of them. We mentioned earlier that Jamie Lloyd had left us cold of late, and The Effect is the most recent example of this. We are fans of the play, and we loved the casting – we had very high hopes, so we think we might have caught them on an off night. And we also previously mentioned that we questioned the efficacy of a one-man Vanya, no matter how skillfully performed. So by default, we have to be rooting for Macbeth, which we did very much enjoy (see last month’s post for why). We would also be happy with a Shirley Valentine win, though we didn’t have the pleasure of seeing it.
This is a very strong category. The Hills of California was very good, and we only rated it comparatively low because we’d seen similar themes explored better in a couple of other recent productions, including Till the Stars Come Down (we have a post coming about this very soon). The latter managed to touch on the same themes of family grief and sisterhood in a way that was both more poignant and deeply funny. We are football fans, so we adored Dear England. It did a wonderful job of exploring the psychology behind the whole England mythos and allowed us to relive some excellent moments (also we didn’t talk about Best Supporting Actor because we had seen so few of the candidates, but congrats to Will Close on his nomination – his Harry Kane managed to be perfect without ever being a caricature, and he was the one laughing in the end).
Ultimately our number one show of last year was The Motive and the Cue. We told anyone and everyone we could about it, and our main line to sell it was ‘if you love theatre, you’ll love this.’ It was the perfect combination of celebration of theatrical history and real human drama and pathos. It gets our vote.
May the Best Win
The rest of the categories we have seen 60% of the nominees at most, so we’ll spare you our comments. Suffice it to say that when it comes to musicals, we’re rooting for Guys & Dolls and Operation Mincemeat. And for plays, for it’s mostly The Motive and the Cue and Dear England, with a hint of Till the Stars Come Down. (Can we ask, how was Johnny Flynn not nominated for his performance as Richard Burton??)
We’re looking forward to the glitz and the pageantry, and we’ll do a follow-up post in a couple of days with our favourite moments.
For now, we just want to wish all the nominees the very best of luck – and remember that you’ve already done brilliantly by being in the conversation. Roll on Sunday!
