At the London stage Olivier Awards on Sunday, a spectacular reproduction of the Hollywood film noir musical “Sunset Boulevard” emerged as the big winner.
At the London stage Olivier Honors on Sunday, a daring remake of the Hollywood film noir musical “Sunset Boulevard” emerged triumphant, collecting seven accolades, including Best Musical Revival and Best Actress for Nicole Scherzinger, an American performer.
The state-of-the-nation drama “Dear England,” which incorporated a soccer theme, won best new play, while Mark Gatiss and Sarah Snook earned best acting.
Nicole Scherzinger: Bringing Norma Desmond to Life
Thirty years after the musical’s 1990s premiere, Scherzinger received recognition for her depiction at the Olivier Awards of aging silver screen icon Norma Desmond in a sumptuous revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.” Tom Francis, who appeared with her and shared the Best Actor Oscar, was a struggling author who was unintentionally pulled into Desmond’s life.
Jamie Lloyd earned an Olivier for sound and lighting design in addition to taking home the directing prize for this incredibly unique work that integrates live video with theatrical action. Lloyd felt that when it premiered in New York later this year, it would “take Broadway by storm.”
The Rise of “Sunset Boulevard” at the Olivier Award
Growing up in Kentucky, Scherzinger declared, “I always wanted to be a singer and do musicals.”
“To be honest, this role as Norma Desmond was not one of the many roles I dreamed of doing,” the actress observed. “However, God operates in mysterious ways.”
“Operation Mincemeat,” a viral smash inspired by a cunning real-life espionage operation that deceived the Nazis during World War II, got the Oscar for best new musical. In 2019, the show debuted in a modest theater and has since evolved to larger venues, winning awards all along the way.
The wonderfully designed prequel to the Netflix horror series “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” took up the best new entertainment or comedy category.
The Olivier Awards, the British counterpart of Broadway’s Tony Awards, are honoring a record-breaking year for West End new shows as they eventually recover from the COVID-19 epidemic. Some of the winners lamented the increased price of theater tickets and the reductions made to arts education, which they thought were pulling working-class talent away from theatrical careers and audiences.
Playwright James Graham, who grew up in a tiny mining town, observed, “If you don’t tell a kid to go and see a show… they’re not going to develop that habit, they’re not going to get that experience.” “So, I’m very concerned.”
However, the atmosphere was mostly joyous as Hannah Waddingham, star of “Ted Lasso,” led a stunning ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She began the concert by leading the London Community Gospel Choir in a version of “Anything Goes.” A number of the nominated musicals, including “Guys and Dolls,” “Hadestown,” and the indigenous triumph “The Little Big Things,” were staged during the festival.
Behind the Scenes: Jamie Lloyd’s Innovative Direction
Established in 1976, the awards celebrate excellence in ballet, theater, and opera and bear the name of the late Laurence Olivier, an actor and director. A voting group composed of stage professionals and theatergoers decides the winners.
Oscar Wilde’s cautionary classic, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” includes Snook as the treacherous Shiv Roy from “Succession.” She beat a strong field of contenders, including Sophie Okonedo and Sarah Jessica Parker, to win best actress in a play. Snook performs more than two dozen roles during the performance.
The Australian musician who won an Emmy Award onstage commented that playing a solo stage act was “so much harder” than doing TV.
Snook observed, “I’ve never done anything harder than this.” She added that she had questioned why she presented a 60,000-word monologue in front of an 8-month-old child. She claimed that she had memorized her lines for the play while breastfeeding her daughter at night during the production of the last season of “Succession.”
Co-creator of the BBC television series “Sherlock,” Gatiss, took up the best actor trophy for his depiction of legendary theater actor John Gielgud in Jack Thorne’s play “The Motive and the Cue,” which explored the difficulty of preparing a 1964 production of “Hamlet” starring Richard Burton.
Gatiss stated that Gielgud believed award shows were “vulgar.”
“I’m so happy to be in such wonderfully vulgar company,” he exclaimed.
Gatiss defeated Andrew Scott, the front-runner for the solo show “Vanya,” and Joseph Fiennes, star of “Dear England.” The greatest revival belongs to Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Anton Chekhov.
Best supporting actor in a play given to Will Close for his depiction of football player Harry Kane in “Dear England.”
After her passing in October, Haydn Gwynne, who performed a final stage part in the documentary “When Winston Went to War with the Wireless,” which documented the early history of radio in Britain, earned a posthumous prize for best supporting actress.
Amy Trigg and Jak Malone got honors for their supporting parts in musicals, “The Little Big Things” and “Operation Mincemeat,” respectively.
A star-studded ensemble played the national anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as the concert drew to a finale with a dedication to the National Theatre, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2023.
Also read: BEYOND THE SCREEN: TOP 20 REVOLUTIONARY FILM DIRECTORS WHO DEFINED CINEMA
Worth reading: GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD SPLIT FROM HUSBAND, YET STILL HANGING OUT
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