A Generation On The Move: The Olivier Awards 2024
A Star is Born, Several Stars Go Home Empty Handed And there is still a big elitism elephant in the room.
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It had to happen. Ever since the nominations for this year’s Olivier Awards were announced the biggest question was not about winners but about creativity. Would THAT moment, that iconic, groundbreaking, tradition shaking, TikTok sensation making walk along The Strand be recreated in the Royal Albert Hall?
The answer was ‘yes’. Tom Francis and the Sunset Boulevard Broadway bound cast members (together with a cardboard cut out of his Highness Lord Lloyd Webber of The Heaviside Layer) delivered the single most iconic moment in Olivier Awards history. Word had slipped out late in the day that there would be a performance from the multiple nominated production and hopes were high.
And so at the end of Act One, right after Jamie Lloyd received the Sir Peter Hall award for Best Director for Sunset Blvd, the glorious Hannah Waddingham asked us to “Please welcome Olivier nominee Tom Francis!” On the screen behind her full colour faded out to a soft monochrome one shot of the actor on the steps, in front of the Royal Albert hall gazing with blazing intensity into the camera. Then the song. Walking up steps, signing autographs, heading along the venue’s long circular corridors with a brief pause to pose with Nicole Scherzinger before picking up his co-stars for a couple of seconds with the Lloyd Webber cut out.
In the Royal Albert Hall auditorium, just as at The Savoy Theatre, the audience are watching the performance on a huge high def screen. Just like at The Savoy, there are people in the Royal Albert Hall who are not convinced that this is real. But when the actor enters the auditorium the ripple of joy becomes a wave and when he perfectly hits his mark onstage to deliver the song’s final note there is a roar, there is a rising and there is a realisation that we have seen something extraordinary. Something is different now and any ideas we had about how we might present theatre have changed with new creative possibilities available. And of course Tom Francis won best actor in a musical.
Sunset Boulevard performed by Tom Francis
The show is the star here except that it features an established global star and has made at least three others.
Sunset BLVD won seven awards this year which sets it up perfectly for its Broadway opening later this year with the same four leads that helped make the London production such an incredible experience.
This made it a tough night for pretty much anyone lined up against Sunset BVLD. The Bridge’s immersive production of Guys and Dolls was probably the unluckiest show this year in terms of Olivier Awards. Despite it being the best constructed musical ever written, and this production receiving plaudits for its embrace of an immersive experience, it was simply NOT Sunset.
In any other year newly adopted national treasure Marisha Wallace would have easily walked off with the best actress in a musical award. And there's a good argument to be made for Caissie Levy in Next to Normal and Natasha Hodgson in Operation Mincemeat as well who were both magnificent. But this year none of them were in Sunset BLVD and none of them were Nicole Scherzinger. They are all still incredible actresses and we should celebrate the fact that there was so much talent on to enjoy in this category.
Ms Scherzinger’s performance as Norma Desmond stood above the West End like the Colossus of Rhodes, a wonder of the theatrical world giving us art, beauty and power. She also won the prize for best acceptance speech of the night and was anyone going to tell her to cut it short?
Elsewhere there were other changes afoot. A play about the England football team, Dear England, won best new play which could be a sign of the national sport’s gentrification. Writer James Graham made a passionate plea for working class kids to be given the same opportunities and investment as those from wealthier backgrounds. This message was echoed by Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners Mark Gatiss (for The Motive and The Cue) and Will Close (for Dear England) who dedicated his win to ‘all the single mums in council houses across the country’
These were not posh boys dropping their ‘H’s’ to sound more ‘aufen’ic’ but lads who had needed to battle to breathe in the ever more elitist air of theatre in the UK. And this ugly issue needs to be addressed by UK theatre producers because there were some parts of this year’s ceremony that were embarrassing in their homogeneity. Out of 18 actors nominated for awards, only two were men of colour and neither of those were winners. We know that the current UK Government is happy for fee paying schools to become the only places that young people can get an arts education so it is up to the industry to change this. (I wrote about what theatres could do HERE)
When theatre makes the effort to reflect the country’s population the results are stunning. Witness the incredible Bush Theatre winning its FOURTH Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre award and the awards for Dear England. The success of West London’s Bush Theatre should be an example to the industry because the venue’s creative output is a reflection of the world its audience inhabits. Not only did the Bush have two shows nominated in the Affiliate category (Sleepova and Playlist for the Revolution) they also have another production, Red Pitch, currently running in the West End (review coming soon).
The writer of Sleepova, Matilda Feyisayo Ibini, was one of two winners who use wheelchairs. The other was Amy Trigg who won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance in The Little Big Things and became the first wheelchair user to win an Olivier acting award. (read her story HERE)
The Little Big Things was also nominated in The Best New Musical category which was won by a show that started as a fringe piece. Operation Mincemeat is the definition of a word of mouth hit which creatively celebrates absurdity and punctures Britain’s class based pomposity.
Operation Mincemeat is as important as Sunset BLVD in extending the parameters of what theatre and musical theatre more especially can achieve. It has a small cast playing multiple roles with no regard to gender, age or race. It is funny and intelligent and popular AND was created on a budget that was less than the cost of Cameron Mackintosh lunch. It succeeds because it is based on a really good idea, it has a clear creative vision and it speaks to today’s audience in its style of presentation. Its success creates space for more less traditional new shows in the same way that Sunset BLVD has done for revivals. This year is also the first time that the Best New Musical and Best Musical Revival have both been won by British shows.
I think that what both shows have in common is something that Nicole Scherzinger said in her acceptance speech they “Give us new ways to dream” about what musical theatre can be.
For a full list of winners click HERE
Established in 1976, the Olivier Awards celebrate the world-class status of London theatre, and are Britain’s most prestigious stage honours.
The Olivier Awards 2024 with Mastercard took place on Sunday 14 April 2024 at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by Emmy winner and multi-Olivier nominee Hannah Waddingham.
The JasonWard Creative Substack is for readers like you. I really appreciate your time spent here and invite you to support my work by taking out a subscription. A paid subscription gives you access to exclusive content plus the entire archive of over 100 articles, reviews, interviews, podcasts and playlists all full of creative insight designed to help you develop your creative projects and practise.