by A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard swept the table at the Oliviers on Sunday night, winning a record number of awards for a musical.
The West End show, featuring music by Lord Lloyd Webber, 76, was recognized with seven Olivier Awards, equaling previous winners Hamilton, Matilda and Cabaret.
Singer and former X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger, who plays the lead role, was nominated for best actress in a musical.
The performance marked her first return to the West End since her debut in Lord Lloyd Webber’s Cats in 2015, for which she received an Olivier nomination.
Scherzinger plays Norma Desmond, the silent screen goddess desperate for a comeback and stuck in an LA mansion, in a musical revival that first premiered in 1993 and inspired Billy Wilder’s 1950 film.
The musical won awards including best musical revival, best actor in a musical, for Scherzinger’s co-star Tom Francis, and best director for Jamie Lloyd, who reimagined the show.
Lord Lloyd Webber has been a force in the West End for decades, as the composer behind hits including The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Among the Hollywood and TV stars to win the annual awards for excellence in theater is Succession star Sarah Snook, who took home best actress for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray. She said it was “a dream come true”.
Snook played 26 characters in the stage adaptation, followed by a camera crew and her performance beamed onto overhead screens.
She beat off competition from actresses including Sarah Jessica Parker, who received her first Olivier nomination for Plaza Suite, in which she starred opposite husband Matthew Broderick.
Elsewhere, Mark Gatiss won best actor for The Motive and The Cue, directed by Sam Mendes at the National Theatre. Other nominees for the award included stars Andrew Scott, James Norton and David Tennant.
Dear England, a play by British playwright James Graham about English football manager Gareth Southgate, starring Joseph Fiennes, won the Londoner award for best new play.
It also won Will Close as best actor in a supporting role, for his performance as Harry Kane.
Speaking to the Telegraph after collecting the Londoner’s award for best new play, he said: “The one thing I think we can all agree on is that if you don’t get lower income people. .. into the theatre, what do you want? what are we doing?”
He suggested that the theater industry is “squeamish” about class.
He said: “[Class] It is hard to see and hard to define. So I think we’re nervous about it… Go to the Baftas and it’s okay they’ve identified categories that they need to address in terms of representation, but none of those are class because we’re so squeamish about it.”
Receiving the award, Graham, 41, paid tribute to the drama teachers at his comprehensive school in Nottingham, who he said “just decided that working-class kids should do plays”.
Graham later revealed that he had missed the working-class flavor at university because he was “so nervous” about it, but he now regrets it. He said that “hopefully” a play about football could help open the theater to a more diverse audience.
He added: “I stand here as a white man, and they are underrepresented in British theatre. But as someone who comes from the Red Wall and a working-class family, I feel it’s my responsibility to beat that drum because it’s hard to see.”
Haydn Gwynne, the actor who died last year after a cancer diagnosis, received a posthumous award. She was known for her roles in the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey and as Queen Camilla’s Companion in the royal satire The Windsors.
The awards ceremony was first held in 1976, when it was called the West End Theater Awards. It is run by the Society of London Theater (Solt), a not-for-profit membership organization for London theater producers, managers, owners and operators.
This year’s ceremony was hosted by Ted Lasso and musical theater star Hannah Waddingham, who opened the awards with a performance of Anything Goes from the musical of the same name.
Among the co-presenters was actor Dominic West, who recently complained that there were “a lot of tourists” in West End audiences and people in London “who aren’t necessarily there because they want to be there”. .
Presenters included actress and model Cara Delevingne, former Vogue editor Edward Enninful, and comedian Sir Lenny Henry.
Eleanor Lloyd, president of Solt, said: “The Olivier Awards once again showcased the excellence of theater in London and the enormous talent in this incredible sector. Congratulations to all the worthy winners and everyone nominated for the great work you have done.”
