‘Hamilton’ wins best musical at UK stage awards

An American musical ‘Hamilton’ by Linmanuel Miranda has been named best new musical at British theater’s Olivier Awards, where it won seven prizes in all.

Giles Terera won the best actor in a musical prize for playing Vice President Aaron Burr in Lin-manuel Miranda’s biography of US founding father Alexander Hamilton, AP reported.

British actor Michael Jibson took the supporting-actor trophy for playing King George III and was delighted.

‘Hamilton’ opened in London in December and is running to sold-out houses after taking the US by storm and winning 11 Tony Awards.

Bryan Cranston has won the best-actor prize at Britain’s Olivier Awards for his performance in ‘Network’.

Cranston plays Howard Beale, an anchorman who is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore in the National Theater production, based on a 1976 movie about the world of television news.

The former ‘Breaking Bad’ star joked that “it’s very difficult to be mad as hell when you’re holding an Olivier”. Cranston said the play, based on Paddy Chayefsky’s original 1970s screenplay, is incredibly prescient in its view of the news as entertainment and big business.

Cuba Gooding Jr., Queen guitarist Brian May and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood are among the stars on a damp London red carpet for British theater’s Olivier Awards.

Gooding Jr. is currently starring in a London revival of ‘Chicago’, and is due to present an award at the Oliviers, Britain’s equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards.

Actors Michael Sheen, Alfred Molina and Imogen Poots also walked the carpet outside the Royal Albert Hall during a London drizzle.

The musical ‘Hamilton’ is nominated in a record 13 categories for Sunday’s awards.

‘Hamilton’ could break the record for most wins at British theater’s Olivier Awards, a haul of nine trophies awarded last year to ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’.

Other contenders in acting categories include Bryan Cranston for ‘Network’, Andrew Garfield for ‘Angels in America’ and Imelda Staunton, nominated for both ‘Follies’ and ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ‘

Jez Butterworth’s Northern Ireland drama ‘The Ferryman’ has eight nominations in non-musical categories.

Named for the late British actor Laurence Olivier, the prizes honor achievements in London theater, musicals and opera. Winners in most categories are chosen by a panel of stage professionals and theatergoers.