The Olivier Awards may, of course, be the Industry’s own slap on the back (and occasionally, slap on the wrist, too), but for a body that is dominated by its commercial members, it’s interesting that all but one of the productions honoured last night came from beyond their immediate coterie: the biggest winner of the night, Sunday in the Park with George which took home five or the six awards it had been nominated for, started its life at the Menier Chocolate Factory; the National brought home four wins (including the one for Best New Musical for Caroline, or Change, eclipsing the commercial competition that included Monty Python’s Spamalot that went into the ceremony with the most number of nominations – seven – but left it empty-handed); the RSC took three awards; with The 39 Steps, Blackbird and Rock ‘n’ Roll (that respectively began their lives at West Yorkshire Playhouse and then the Tricycle, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Royal Court) taking one each.
Once again, the health of the commercial theatre is obviously predicated on the health of the theatre beyond it, and even the sole purely ‘commercial’ winner – the revival of Cabaret – was largely the work of performers and a creative staff who had learned their craft working on the subsidised front.
But if that is ever thus (and the film industry, of course, is in turn a major beneficiary of the British theatre system, too, as Nick Hytner pointed out at his press conference last week at the National), its also interesting to note how much consensus there has been between the various awards ceremonies this year that the Oliviers have brought to an end. Caroline, or Change reprised the honour for Best New Musical that it had already taken at both the Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Theatre Awards; Rufus Sewell completed a similar home run as Best Actor across all three awards for his performance in Rock ‘n’ Roll; and Sunday in the Park with George (honoured a year ago by the Critics’ Circle for Best Design – in an award that I presented — after it was first seen at the Menier), now taking the same award in both the Oliviers and Standards. Tamsin Greig, who took the Critics’ Circle prize for Best Shakespearean Performance for starring in the RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing, added a Best Actress Olivier to her mantlepiece, and made the year’s funniest acceptance speech, too – “I’ve done a wee!”, she said excitedly – “and it’s running down my leg”.
She was probably not the only one to pee, metaphorically or otherwise, with excitement (or get constipated with disappointment). While Tony-winning shows and performances did not, with the exception of Caroline, or Change, reprise their award success here, a slew of Olivier Awards can only be to the good of Sunday in the Park with George as it heads to Broadway next. I have long hoped that both Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell would get to reprise their London performances there, and surely this double-header of Olivier Awards can only improve the case for taking them, too.
It was nice to hear Daniel paying tribute in his acceptance speech to his partner Daniel Crossley – “who stopped me from committing suicide in the third week of rehearsals”, and also of Dominic Cooke also mentioning his partner, actor Alexi Kaye Campbell, “who always believes in me, especially at the moments that I don’t.”
An Olivier on the mantelpiece is of course, a pretty good indication that others believe in you, too – but the insecurity of the profession is such that even Laurence Olivier, for whom the awards are named, would suffer such self-doubts, according to his director son Richard who represented the family there by presenting an award. Kenneth Tynan once said of his father that he “used his talent, but neglected his genius”, but Olivier replied that theatre is primarily a craft and it takes huge graft. Last night’s celebration of craft and graft was a testament to the amount of sheer talent and occasional genius that we have in our midst.
