Phew! It’s been a whirlwind morning but there you have it – the nominations for the Olivier Awards 2020 are out!
First things first, if you missed the nominations announcement, don’t worry, you still can watch the full thing with the fantastic Gavin Creel and Alexia McIntosh below!
Leading the way this year is brand new British jukebox musical & Juliet, who must have been singing …Baby One More Time all through the announcement. The pop sensation jam-packed full of Max Martin hits received a whopping nine nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Set Design and Best Costume Design.
Cassidy Janson, Melanie La Barrie, Miriam Teak Lee, Arun Blai Mangat and ensemble of & Juliet
Trevor Nunn’s revival of Fiddler On The Roof was nominated eight times, including a nod for Trevor as Best Director, and nominations for Andy Nyman and Judy Kuhn for their performances.
New musical Dear Evan Hansen received seven nominations for its long-awaited opening on the West End. The nominations encompass a whole host of the cast in lead and supporting roles, including Sam Tutty receiving a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his professional debut.
Mary Poppins received six nominations, including another for last year’s Special Recognition Award-winner, Sir Matthew Bourne, who must have quite the collection on his mantlepiece by now! This year, he’s been nominated alongside Stephen Mear for their co-choreography of the Disney musical. Leads Zizi Strallen and Charlie Stemp have also been nominated – we doubt they needed a spoonful of sugar with that news!
Leading the plays are the Young Vic production of Death Of A Salesman – with acting nominations for Wendell Pierce, Sharon D. Clarke and Arinzé Kene; Rosmersholm at the Duke of York’s Theatre – with a Best Actress nod for Hayley Atwell; and Cyrano De Bergerac at the Playhouse Theatre. The three plays have received five nominations each. Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre and Present Laughter at The Old Vic get four nominations.
This year’s Best New Play nominees include A Very Expensive Poison – Lucy Prebble’s play about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko – and Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt – which charts a Viennese Jewish family’s journey through the early 20th century.
The Best Actor Category sees Toby Jones nominated for Uncle Vanya, James McAvoy for Cyrano De Bergerac (his fourth Best Actor nomination!), Wendell Pierce with his first Olivier nomination for his West End Debut in Death Of A Salesman, and Andrew Scott for Present Laughter.
In the Best Actress category, Hayley Atwell is nominated for Rosmersholm, Sharon D. Clarke for Death Of A Salesman, Juliet Stevenson for The Doctor and Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Fleabag. Sharon and Juliet are both receiving their sixth nomination, and Sharon has now been nominated across all four acting categories!
It’s been a big year for new performers with not only Sam Tutty but also Jac Yarrow, who receives a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his debut in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Miriam-Teak Lee gets her first nomination for & Juliet and Zizi Strallen for Mary Poppins. Though it’s not all first timers – the wonderful Petula Clarke, last nominated in 1981, receives a Best Supporting Actress in a Musical nomination for her performance as the Bird Lady in Mary Poppins.
Julian Bird, Chief Executive of Society of London Theatre and Executive Producer of the Olivier Awards, said:
‘2020’s nominations demonstrate the range of productions, talent and enterprise on our stages over the last year, with a mix of breadth and diversity that showcases the modern British theatre landscape. We look forward to celebrating all this incredible, world-leading talent on Sunday 5 April.’
You can still grab tickets to the Olivier Awards ceremony on Sunday 5 April exclusively with Mastercard through priceless.com.