Chim chim cher-oo! Here are MY ttheatre awards
The Oliviers are off, so our man in the stalls is stepping in...
On Sunday night, the Albert Hall was due to be buzzing with excited thespians hoping to crown their careers with an Olivier Award. The awards are the Oscars of British theatre but, thanks to the coronavirus, the event has been rescheduled for the autumn.
Instead of a live broadcast of the annual jamboree, ITV will instead screen highlights of ceremonies from the past decade, with comedian Jason Manford hosting, at 10.15pm.
nominations are drawn up by a panel of theatre professionals and members of the public, before being voted on by the Society of London Theatres (SOLT).
So while we await their verdict, I thought it might be fun to award my own gongs — let’s call them the Marmions — to my favourites on the Oliviers’ shortlist.
BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES: Phoebe WallerBridge returned with the one-hour monologue that seeded the TV phenomenon of Fleabag but was, in all honesty, rather thin.
Juliet Stevenson meanwhile swept through The Doctor in her role as a medic in an ethical fix in Robert Icke’s experimental adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s drama.
And Sharon D. Clarke (who won best actress in a musical for Caroline, Or Change last year) gave a touchingly tender performance as the desperate mother in Death Of A Salesman.
MY WINNER: Hayley Atwell in Rosmersholm. I can still feel the aftershocks from her performance as the liberated young woman propelling Tom Burke through Ian Rickson’s ferocious revival of Henrik Ibsen’s tough (and tougher to pronounce) drama, Rosmersholm.
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES: Toby Jones skipped through a jauntily gloomy turn in the title role of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Wendell Pierce certainly had gravitas as a big man in free fall in Death Of A Salesman, and James McAvoy gave his street-smart Cyrano De Bergerac a bravura swagger.
MY WINNER: Andrew Scott in Present Laughter at the Old Vic; Scott completed a hat-trick of performances across different media — including hot priest on
TV in Fleabag and careworn and cynical officer in the film 1917 — with his brilliant portrayal of a gloriously self- obsessed actor in noel Coward’s comedy.
BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL NOMINEES: Former Cirque du Soleil acrobat Audrey Brisson charmed in the musical version of French film Amelie. Judy Kuhn made Tevye’s wife Golde a proudly feisty proposition in Fiddler On The Roof. And Miriam-Teak Lee bopped her socks off in the juke box musical & Juliet.
MY WINNER: Zizi Strallen, who smashed it as Mary Poppins. From the moment she struck first position, spun her brolly and put her best foot forward, I knew that super Strallen was going to be fantastic.
BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL NOMINEES: Andy nyman impressed as a loveably gutsy Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof, as did Charlie Stemp as magical chimney sweep Bert in Mary Poppins. And Jac Yarrow flashed some impressive gnashers as Joseph in
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Dreamcoat. MY WINNER: Rookie Sam Tutty, in Dear Evan Hansen. It was a hugely demanding part, in a tricky story about a young man who befriends a family whose misfit son has killed himself. But Tutty brought joy, vivacity and enormous maturity to the title role.
BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES: Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell combined forcefully in their doom-laden production of Death Of A Salesman. Trevor nunn proved he’s still got what it takes with his intimate yet epic production of Fiddler On The Roof. And Ian Rickson curated another fine set of performances in Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
MY WINNER: Jamie Lloyd, the winner by a nose for his hit production of Edmond Rostand’s tragi- romcom Cyrano De Bergerac, about the lyrical lover with the outsized conk. James McAvoy in the title role, transformed sentimental Cyrano into a thoroughly modern melancholic. BEST NEW PLAY NOMINEES:
A Very Expensive Poison, Lucy Prebble’s adaptation of Luke Harding’s book about the murder of Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, was ambitious but felt, at times, facetious. Robert Icke’s adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s The Doctor was boldly experimental, but long and sometimes confusing. Much better than either was Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, a highly personal historical epic about the Holocaust.
MY WINNER: Joel Horwood’s adaptation of neil Gaiman’s cult novel The Ocean At The End Of The Lane: an extraordinary piece of magical storytelling about a boy who discovers a parallel universe on a farm.