The most prestigious event in the theatre awards calendar is fast approaching, which means it’s time for theatre lovers to vote for the long-running show they’d like to see take home the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award at this year’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard.
The BBC Radio 2 Audience Award is the only Olivier Award voted for entirely by the public. To be eligible, productions must have opened before 15 February 2013, still be running on 13 April 2014, the date of 2014’s star-studded ceremony, and have not announced they will be closing.
This year there are 16 productions, from hit plays to showstopping musicals, eligible for the award that was collected by Billy Elliot The Musical in 2013. The ballet-based musical will consequently not be eligible for this year’s prize, but will help present the award to the 2014 winner.
Last year’s big winner The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, World War I drama War Horse, murder mystery The Mousetrap, hit comedy The 39 Steps and ghost story The Woman In Black are fighting it out on behalf of the plays.
They are up against all-singing all-dancing competition in the form of hit musicals Les Misérables, The Bodyguard, Disney’s The Lion King, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia!, Matilda The Musical, Thriller Live, The Phantom Of The Opera, We Will Rock You and Wicked, as well as percussion sensation Stomp.
Everyone who votes will be entered into a prize draw to win a pair of tickets for each of the shows that make it onto the Audience Award shortlist, which will be announced, along with all of the other Olivier Award nominees, on 10 March.
Voting will close on 4 March, when the long list is whittled down to just four shortlisted productions. The winning show will then be announced, along with the rest of the winners, on the night of the ceremony.
Previous recipients of the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award include Oz-set musical Wicked, French Revolutionary hit Les Misérables, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera and rock musical We Will Rock You.
This year’s Olivier Awards ceremony will take place for a third year at the capital’s iconic Royal Opera House, where the crème de la crème of performers and creatives will gather along with special guests to celebrate an incredible year of London theatre.
Visit the Olivier Awards website to vote for your favourite long-running production and make sure to follow the awards on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news.
