Olivier Awards 2015: Best Bits
Share This Article:
Last night saw this year's Olivier Awards grace Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House. The night is aimed to celebrate and show recognition to the best of London's theatre, dance and opera (basically the theatre version of the Oscars).
Named after the infamous actor Laurence Olivier and annually presented by the Society of London Theatre, here our are best bits of this year's event.
Before the award show evening, an array of top West End performances were held in Covent Garden's Plaza. The likes of Billy Elliot, Avenue Q, Wicked, Matilda, Beyond Bolly and the West End Gospel took to stage to wow the public.
From Covent Garden to the ROH, the best of London's musical talent crowned the stage during the evening's running. The casts of various West End musicals, including Memphis, City of Angels, Cats (Nicole Sherzinger), Wicked, Miss Saigon, Sunny Afternoon and Porgy & Bess.
- Article continues below...
- More stories you may like...
- Fringe Review: The Addams Family @ Paradise in Augustines
- Theatre Preview: Rhetoric @ Bread and Roses Theatre, London
- Musicians to watch out for at this year's Fringe
A View from the Bridge, Sunny Afternoon and Memphis raked in the awards last night, with AVftB taking three awards home, Sunny Afternoon taking four and Memphis being crowned two awards.
Best Actress went to Penelope Wilton for her performance in Taken At Midnight, while Mark Strong took the award for Best Actor for A View from the Bridge.
Wicked (Apollo Victoria theatre) won the Audience award. (Woah, didn't see that one coming!)
Favourites included Angela Lansbury win for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and the standing ovation that followed, A View from the Bridge for Best Revival and Es Devlin's third Olivier win for Best Set Design for The Nether at the Duke Of York's Theatre.
In opera, The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg (ENO) won Best New Opera Production in which Ed Gardner announces that the opera "is a 6 hour masterpiece about the justification of art."
In ballet, Sylvie Guillem received the first of the evening's Special Awards, as presented by Sir Anthony Dowell, former Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet. The award comes following Guillem's incredible career seeing her perform with the world's leading ballet companies.
Guillem on receiving her award said: "I never had this opportunity to thank the audience. You were always there, always warm, passionate. When I stop dancing I'm really going to miss you."I'm gonna be a retired ballerina and I'm quite furious about it. But it's my decision. It was 39 years of pleasure. Thank you."
Guillem will conclude her career in ballet with exclusive performances in Birmingham this September. The evening closed with Kevin Spacey collecting his Special Award for his dedication to the UK’s theatre scene at the Old Vic theatre and concluded with a cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water.The full list of winners can be found on the Olivier Awards website.
Let us know what you thought of this year's winners on Twitter @nationalstudent.