Harry Potter and the gong shortlist record
HARRY Potter and the Cursed Child has become the most nominated new play in the history of the Olivier Awards.
The West End production, which imagines what happened when JK Rowling’s boy wizard grew up, is shortlisted in 11 categories. They include nominations for Jamie Parker and Noma Dumezweni, who play the adult Harry and Hermione, and one for the play’s extraordinary set design. Groundhog Day is the most nominated musical, recognised in eight categories.
The Olivier Awards will take place at the Royal Opera House on April 9.
Glenda Jackson’s return to the stage after a 25-year absence, playing the lead in a gender-blind King Lear at the Old Vic, has earned her a best actress nomination.
This is Jackson’s first nomination since 1984, the inaugural year of the Oliviers. Her rivals this time are the actresses Cherry Jones ( The Glass Menagerie), Billie Piper Yerma) and Ruth Wilson Hedda Gabler).
The best actor category will see Ed Harris ( Buried Child), Tom Hollander ( Travesties) and Sir Ian McKellen ( No Man’s Land) vie with Jamie Parker.
Among the English National Opera’s five nominations is Australian tenor Stuart Skelton, an Outstand- ing Achievement in Opera contender for his performance in Tristan and Isolde at the Coliseum last year.
Embarrassingly, Skelton recently launched a blistering attack on the ENO. He said the company’s chief executive, Cressida Pollock, was “out of her depth” and the artistic director, Daniel Kramer, was “the wrong man for the job” and “irretrievably American”.