…and that’s a wrap on the Olivier Awards 2023 with Mastercard!
Find pics of all our winners and presenters here:
After an evening jam-packed full of performances and tributes celebrating the magic of live theatre, all our talented winners, nominees and stars are now on their way to celebrate and dance the night away.
It’s been a big year for new talent and talent new to the West End; 13 out of the 18 named winners were first-time Olivier nominees, and nearly all were first-time winners! Find out all the winners below.
The standout winners tonight were RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, who head home with a whopping six awards, including the Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. Awards were also picked up by Phelim McDermott for direction, Tony Gayle for sound design, Kimie Nakano for costume design, Tom Pye for set design and Jessica Hun Hang Yun for lighting design.
The other frontrunner this year was the Almeida Theatre, who saw a total of six wins across its three multi-nominated productions; Patriots, A Streetcar Named Desire and Tammy Faye. The Almeida’s productions dominated the acting categories, with wins for Katie Brayben, Will Keen, Paul Mescal, Zubin Varla and Anjana Vasan. Rebecca Frecknall’s innovative new production of A Streetcar Named Desire also scooped up the Cunard Best Revival award.
The final three acting wins went to Jodie Comer, for her role in Best New Play winner Prima Facie; Beverley Knight for her role in Sylvia, and Arthur Darvill for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, which also took home Magic Radio Best Musical Revival.
The competitive category of Mastercard Best New Musical was won this year by new British musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge. The musical sees a history of modern Britain told across three generations in one Sheffield estate written by Chris Bush, with music and lyrics by Richard Hawley and orchestrations by Tom Deering, who won the award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations.
The Unusual Rigging award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre – which covers a lot of the off-West End theatres in London – went to The P Word at the Bush Theatre, Waleed Akhtar’s witty new play that explores the experience of two different gay Pakistani men living in the UK.
The two opera awards went to an innovative and artistic staging of 18th century classic Alcina – with dream-like design and huge animal head costumes – and multidisciplinary South African-born artist William Kentridge for his new opera Sibyl.
Both dance awards this year went to pieces exploring identity and growth. Dickson Mbi won Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his choreography of Enowate, exploring the multiple identities conjured by his upbringing and his heritage. Best New Dance Production went to Traplord by Ivan Michael Blackstock, which meditates on ideas of masculinity, mental health and the stereotyping of young Black men.
Matt Cole took home the newly named Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for his stunning balletic choreography of Disney’s Newsies, and Best Family Show went to Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show after Duggee himself walked our very own Green Carpet at the beginning of the night!
Find the full list of winners and nominees here.