The Young Vic and playwright Mike Bartlett have led the way at the Olivier Awards 2015 with MasterCard, collecting three and two wins respectively in the first half.
The Young Vic, which began the night with 11 nominations, kicked off the ceremony with a win in the opening category, collecting the award for Best Revival for its acclaimed production of A View From The Bridge.
One win for the production was followed by another as Mark Strong collected the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of the production’s leading man Eddie Carbone. The Arthur Miller drama was the big screen star’s first outing on the London stage in more than a decade.
A hat-trick of first half awards for the Southwark venue was completed by Bartlett’s Bull, which ran in the Young Vic’s smaller Maria studio and won the award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.
Bartlett completed his own remarkable double by also collecting the Virgin Atlantic Best New Play Award for his ‘future history play’ King Charles III, which imagined what might happen when Prince Charles takes to the throne.
While Jennifer Haley’s The Nether missed out in this category, its designer Es Devlin collected the XL Video Award for Best Set Design, adding to her 2014 win in the same category for her work on Chimerica.
Sound designer Gareth Owen also claimed back to back wins, following up 2014’s win in the Best Sound Design category for Merrily We Roll Along with a 2015 win for his work on Memphis The Musical.
Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies’ Christopher Oram won the award for Best Costume Design, with the production’s Henry VIII, Nathaniel Parker, winning the statuette for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
In its sister category, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, stage royalty Angela Lansbury won her first ever Olivier Award in her 90th year for her performance as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit.
Penelope Wilton, who is surely on her way to being made a Dame, collected the Best Actress Olivier for her performance in Taken At Midnight.
The remarkable tale of The Play That Goes Wrong, for which everything keeps going very right, continued, as the production that started life at the Old Red Lion Theatre won the award for Best New Comedy.
Howard Harrison won the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design for his work on the Donmar Warehouse’s City Of Angels, and in opera English National Opera reigned supreme, winning Best New Opera Production for The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg and Outstanding Achievement in Opera for its director Richard Jones, recognising his work across a number of productions.
The 39th Olivier Awards, held at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, got off to a tuneful start with a performance from MasterCard Best New Musical nominee Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger took to the stage to perform Memory from Cats, and Sunny Afternoon, Memphis The Musical and Miss Saigon also entertained the Oliviers audience.
Dancer Akram Khan performed Torobaka in honour of Special Award winner Sylvie Guillem.
You can see acceptance speeches, performances and more in an extended highlights show being aired on ITV at 22:15, shortly after the end of the live ceremony.
