Top honours were split three ways at the 2019 Olivier Awards held at London’s Royal Albert Hall 7 April. Director Marianne Elliott’s gender-swapped revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, the West End transfer of the Tony-winning Come From Away, and writer Matthew Lopez’s two-part, seven-hour take on New York gay life, The Inheritance, all won four Oliviers each at a ceremony celebrating the stage and performing arts across the U.K.
Company, which closed earlier this month, won Best Musical Revival, Best Set Design, and Best Supporting Actor for Jonathan Bailey’s brilliantly jittery turn as Jamie, the groom with lots and lots of doubts. Patti LuPone also capped the end of a momentous week (in which she joined Twitter with the inimitable words, “Contain me with only 280 characters? F**k that”) by winning her third Olivier.
The Broadway icon insisted she’d taken the role of Joanne in Company just to work with director Marianne Elliot. In her acceptance speech LuPone said, “I said to myself: if I say no to this woman then she’ll never ask me again and I don’t want to risk that. I am here because I want to work with Marianne.”
Elliott lost out to Stephen Daldry for the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director. Daldry’s production of The Inheritance, described as a “gay epic” about love and the legacy of AIDS in modern Manhattan, also won American actor Kyle Soller his first Olivier as Best Actor. The production topped a winning evening with the Olivier for Best New Play.
READ: So You Want to Act in the West End?
Elsewhere in the acting categories, Patsy Ferran won Best Actress for her role in the Almeida’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke and newcomer Chris Walley won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Lieutenant of Inishmore—not bad for his first role out of drama school.
Broadway hit Come From Away, which tells the story of a small Canadian town’s reaction to 9/11, won Oliviers for Best New Musical, Best Choreographer, Sound Design, as well as Outstanding Achievement in Music.
Hosted by comedian Jason Manford, this year’s ceremony featured musical performances from eventual Best Actress in a Musical winner Sharon D. Clarke, star of Caroline, Or Change, as well as fellow nominees Rosalie Craig of Company and the brilliant Adrienne Warren as Tina Turner. Warren’s Tina co-star Kobna Holdbrook-Smith went on to win Best Actor in a Musical. The glitzy Albert Hall crowd were also charmed by presenting turns from Sally Field and co-star Bill Pullman, who open in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons later this week.
Established in 1976 and renamed in 1984, the Laurence Olivier Awards are presented by the not-for-profit Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and sponsored by Mastercard. For more information and a full list of this year’s Olivier results, visit olivierawards.com.
Check out Backstage’s UK audition listings!