The Almeida Theatre has enjoyed incredible success in the first half of the Olivier Awards 2014 with MasterCard, collecting six awards for its acclaimed productions of Ghosts and Chimerica.
The first half, in fact, was topped and tailed by wins for the Richard Eyre-directed production of Ibsen’s classic. Ghosts opened proceedings with wins for Best Revival and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jack Lowden, and brought the first half proceedings to a close as Lesley Manville won the Best Actress prize for her central performance as Mrs Alving. Her Olivier win adds to the Critics’ Circle prize she won for the performance earlier this year.
Sandwiched between Ghosts’ awards, Chimerica collected three of its own for Best Lighting Design (Tim Lutkin and Finn Ross), Best Sound Design (Carolyn Dowling) and Best Set Design (Es Devlin). In a rare occurrence, Chimerica’s wins in the Lighting and Sound categories were shared with other productions, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’s Paul Pyant and Jon Driscoll also recognised for Lighting, and Merrily We Roll Along’s Gareth Owen honoured for Sound.
Pyant and Driscoll’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory colleague Mark Thompson collected the award for Best Costume Design.
The National Theatre picked up a brace of first half acting awards. Rory Kinnear, like Manville, adds to a Critics’ Circle Award for his performance as Iago in Othello with the Olivier Best Actor Award. The win is his second Olivier following his 2008 triumph in the Best Performance in a Supporting Role category for The Man Of Mode. His National Theatre colleague Sharon D Clarke won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category, beating her own The Amen Corner co-star Cecilia Noble to the award.
Hit show Jeeves & Wooster In Perfect Nonsense which, until recently, starred this year’s Olivier Awards host Stephen Mangan alongside Matthew Macfadyen, was named Best New Comedy, with the Royal Opera House’s West End transfer of The Wind In The Willows triumphing in the Best Entertainment And Family category.
There were Royal Opera House wins too in the opera categories, with Les Vêpres Siciliennes winning Best New Opera and English Touring Opera winning Outstanding Achievement in Opera for the productions it staged at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre.
Producer Michael White, who brought productions including The Rocky Horror Show and A Chorus Line to the West End, was presented with a Special Award by model Kate Moss and actor Nigel Planer.
Away from the prize-giving, the memorable first half has been packed with incredible performances from Best New Musical nominees Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The Book Of Mormon, The Scottsboro Boys and Once, and BBC Radio 2 Audience Award nominees Wicked, Les Misérables, Matilda The Musical and The Phantom Of The Opera.
Theatre fans can enjoy these performances and those still to come in the second half when extensive highlights of tonight’s ceremony are aired on ITV at 22:15, shortly after proceedings at the Royal Opera House have come to a close.
