Olivier Awards (2013) – The Winners and Losers

The 37th Olivier Awards took place this past Sunday; an evening brought together to celebrate the very best of theatre in the UK.

As expect, the evening brought-out the very best of British theatre talent to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, displaying that not only can us Brits do theatre better than anyone else in the world but we can also look better than any others too.

It was ball gowns and bow ties every way you turned. But hey, who was complaining? These theatre folk aren’t exactly ugly!

2011 Best Actress in a Musical winner and West End actress Sheridan Smith, alongside television favourite Hugh Bonnerville, lead the evenings proceedings with the stageyest of openings from Miss Smith who performed Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend; dancers and all.

The evening honoured the very best of British theatre both in the musical, opera, play and production genres.

For the first time ever, the Olivier Awards were broadcast on mainstream television; featuring on ITV for an hour-long highlights programme at 10:15pm. The show also streamed live from the Opera House on BBC Radio 2.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time dominated the awards, equaling the record by picking up seven Oliviers, including best actor for its star, Luke Treadaway.

Curious Incident also won Best New Play with Marianne Elliott won best director and Spooks actor Nicola Walker, who played the teenager’s mother in the original production, won best supporting actress.

During her acceptance speech, Marianne Elliott said: “We took risks and we thought we would fail and it is a testament to subsidised theatre that we were allowed to think we might fail.”

The evening also saw British actress Helen Mirren win her first Olivier for her performance as the Queen in The Audience. Richard McCabe, who played Harold Wilson alongside Mirren, was named Best Supporting Actor.

Sweeney Todd and Top Hat also won three awards each including Best Musical for Top Hat and Actor and Actress for Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton for Sweeney.

Leigh Zimmerman, who celebrated her join citizenship with Britain, won Best Supporting Musical Performance for her role in A Chorus Line at the London Palladium.The BBC Radio 2 audience award, celebrating long-running musicals, was awarded to Billy Elliot.

Special awards were also given to choreographer and director Gillian Lynne and playwright Michael Frayn.

The evening also featured performances from Idina Menzel, Top Hat, A Chorus Line, Michael Ball and Heather Headley.

Heather Headley performing ‘I Will Always Love You’ from The Bodyguard – The Musical.

The Olivier Awards have grown in popularity and respect from around the world. No longer are they over-shadowed by the American Tony Awards and have become awards with recognition. The evening once again celebrated a vast amount of talent from across the theatre arts world. Great to see Curious Incident get the recognition it deserves and celebrate not both performers on stage but off as well with Gillian Lynne.

No doubt The Book of Mormon will achieve well in the 2014 awards and with the expected revival of  Miss Saigon and potentially even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical as well, next years awards will be full of different musical genres to please everyone.

See you in April 2014!

Winners… 

BEST ACTOR – Luke Treadaway – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST ACTRESS – Helen Mirren – The Audience

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – Richard McCabe – The Audience

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – Nicola Walker – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

MASTERCARD BEST NEW PLAY – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST DIRECTOR – Marianne Elliott – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL – Michael Ball – Sweeney Todd

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL – Imelda Staunton – Sweeney Todd

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL – Leigh Zimmerman – A Chorus Line

BEST NEW MUSICAL – Top Hat

BEST REVIVAL – Long Day’s Journey Into Night

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL – Sweeney Todd

BEST ENTERTAINMENT AND FAMILY – Goodnight Mister Tom

WHITE LIGHT AWARD FOR BEST LIGHTING DESIGN – Paule Constable – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST SOUND DESIGN – Ian Dickinson – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST COSTUME DESIGN – Jon Morrell – Top Hat

XL VIDEO AWARD FOR BEST SET DESIGN – Bunny Christie & Finn Ross – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION – Aeternum by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE – Marianela Nunez for Aeternum, Diana & Actaeon and Viscera, The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER – Bill Deamer – Top Hat

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE – The season of new writing at the Royal Court Upstairs

BEST NEW OPERA PRODUCTION – Einstein On The Beach at the Barbican Theatre

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA – Bryan Hymel for his performances in Les Troyens, Robert Le Diable and Rusalka at the Royal Opera House

BBC RADIO 2 AUDIENCE AWARD – Billy Elliot The Musical

SPECIAL AWARD – Gillian Lynne & Michael Frayn

Header, quote and all photographs copyright to http://www.olivierawards.co.uk and @OlivierAwards.

Sheffield Theatres wants ”more” this Christmas with Bart’s famous Oliver!

Sheffield Theatres have announced its 2013 Christmas musical: Lionel Bart’s, Oliver!

Following the great success of his 2012 Christmas production of My Fair Lady, tony nominated Daniel Evans, current Artistic Director at the Crucible Theatre, will direct this Christmas a cast of local young performers and the best of British theatre talent.

Lionel Barts Oliver!, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, follows the life of a orphan in London and his unlikely friendship with a local thief. After asking for ”more” in an orphanage, he is sold to an undertaker and subsequently runs away, ending in London, England. His friendship with local pick-pocket Dodger then entails.

Made famous in 1969 with an international box office smash film, Oliver! will no-doubt move Sheffield Theatres towards a second sell-out Christmas run.

Its most recognisable musical numbers include Food, Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, Yo’ve Got to Pick a Pocket, Boy for Sale, Where is Love? and the famous, As Long as He Needs Me.

Director Daniel Evans is sure audiences will be wanting ”more” with his production this festive season: “I’m so excited to be bringing Lionel Bart’s Oliver! to the Crucible Stage. Dickens’ boldness of characterisation and Bart’s music hall score combine to make an intoxicating piece of music theatre. We’ll be working with sixty talented children from the city region alongside a cast of 22 professional actors and 15 musicians. So, I hope we can continue to make Sheffield Theatres the place to be at Christmas!”

Joining the Creative Team alongside Daniel Evans are Designer Peter McKintosh (Me and My Girl), Choreographer Alistair David (My Fair Lady), Musical Director Jonathan Gill, Lighting Designer Howard Harrison (Me and My Girl) and Sound Designer Simon Baker (My Fair Lady).

Oliver! goes on sale to Sheffield Theatres members on Saturday 18 May and to the public on Saturday 25 May.

Tickets available direct at: http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk or at the Box Office on 0114 249 6000.

Header, quote via Daniel Evans and all photographs copyright to http://www.sheffieldtheatre.co.uk and The Stage, UK.

Olivier Awards (2013) – My Prediction

The 2013 Laurence Olivier Awards, the UK’s more prestigious theatre ceremony, will return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on the 28th April 2013.

Marking its 37th year, the Olivier Awards present the best of British theatre both on-stage and off live at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. The evening will feature performances from many nominated West End shows, solo performances and special guests as well as tributes to the nominated and successful award winners.

The ceremony will be broadcasted on ITV from 10:15pm and live on BBC Radio 2 from 6pm. Following on from the great success last year, large telivision screens will display the ceremony to city’s theatre loving audience.

Criticism from last years ceremony, avalaible by the BBC red button, has resulted in the production being moved over to ITV in an hour-long highlights section.

But… who will win?

Predicting award winners can always be difficult. Going on last year, I think there will be a few surprises. Sweeney Todd and The Bodyguard at the Adelpi, Loserville at the Garrick and Top Hat at the Aldwych I think will do very well as revivals and new pieces respectivly.

Picking out individual performances that will recieive praise is difficult this year. Like with productions themselves, I think any lead from all the above shows mentioned will succeed in one manor or another. Sheridan Smith‘s move into plays may get a special mention and potentially even War Horse aswell; still taking the West End by storm.

Heather Headley, currently recreating the role of Rachel Marron, made famous by Whitney Houston in the original film, has prooved a popular performer amongst new attendees, bringing a new warmth of life to the stage. The Bodyguard marks her West End debut as a leading lady.

Tom Chambers in Tophat could provide a popular choice amongst theatre attendee’s this year.

A list of full nominations can be found at www.olivierawards.com/nominations

No doubt my predictions will be far-off and the Oliviers will surprise us all but that’s part of the mystery of theatre.

I look forward to listening to the show tonight from 6pm will full details of the ceremony and the award winners too.

Good luck to all invovled!

My journey with Acorn Antiques

It’s been 2 weeks since Acorn Antiques finished so I thought now would be the right time to reflect back on my time as a cast member but most importantly as Publicity Manager.

This was the first job that i’ve ever done in leading publicity at such a large scale venue as the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre so I knew that I needed to use all the experience i’d developed from previous roles in publicity from productions back home.

My biggest concern when I was first approached about the role was being able to balance between my publicity role and my role as Minchin’s Lad within the production itself, but they both seemed to fit perfectly alongside each other as the weeks went by. When I wasn’t focused on one role, I was the other, thus making my time at rehearsals rather busy but just the way I like it!

Alongside leading publicity for Acorn Antiques, I was able to work with Fiona Hannon who was Croft House‘s other marketing manager and playing the role of Miss Bonnie in the production. Both of us have had experience in publicity and knew a lot about Croft so ensuring that we kept our eye on the production and fully knew the story and what was going on at rehearsals, marketing the show should be easy… we hoped!

Problems arose when either myself or Fiona were away from rehearsals or involved in a certain scene that we had identified as a piece of potential publicity material that we weren’t able to capture. Often we had to throw a camera or camera-phone at another cast member and ask them to snap away. One of the main points I learnt during my time with Acorn Antiques was that team work is vital in the world of publicity!

Weeks before our move to the Lyceum, I decided that we needed just that extra bit of material online and the only thing that we hadn’t done as a cast would be a video so I took a camera from Uni and began filming. In addition, I was wanting to test myself at University and video was a part of my blog that I hadn’t explored yet so it seemed like the perfect match.

My trailer is still the single piece of work that I am most proud of.

Having my friend Dave available to film half of the rehearsal and me taking over when not rehearsing allowed me to get the shots I wanted. Although it took hours of extra work to put together, i’m so proud of the final piece and will be showing it to many people with projects to come!

https://vimeo.com/61291652

The trailer shows the very best of the show without giving anything away or spoiling the show for those attending weeks later at the Lyceum. It also gave a great morale boost for the cast to see how really amazing the show we have been rehearsing is. Its very easy to become wrapped up in your part and not appreciate the performances others are giving around you so getting to watch others performances, for myself certainly, was a great reward, and I know was for many other cast members too.

Another piece that worked very well for our publicity drive was my interview with the director of Acorn Antiques, Mark Harris. Giving people that extra little look inside the production before either visiting us in March or even deciding on buying a ticket worked really well. People’s curiosity into what the show is even about or what goes on in getting a production to the Lyceum was matched by my interview and gave them that extra bit of inside knowledge they may have been craving.

Moving to the theatre is always difficult when working in publicity as you get caught up so easily in the huge transition the entire production has just made and it tends to slip into second place alongside being a performer within the show. With Acorn Antiques, I wanted to ensure this didn’t happen. This wasn’t helped that I had started a new job on the Monday that we had out dress rehearsal and all our performance week so I needed to make use of any free time I had before I started my new job to complete any outstanding tasks. These included arranging publicity at the theatre; posters and flyers etc, prevent any potential problems with reviews from opening night by contacting all newspaper or online theatre reviewers and letting them know event details and when they can expect production photographs and generally covering anything that could cause time delays or harm the publicity Fiona and I had worked so hard on for months.

I was fortunate to be able to manage the shows online presence by using the Facebook Pages app on my iPhone. Having this gave me access to the Croft House page and ability to publish all photographs to our following from wherever I might be. These were often published during breaks and intervals during my new working day. Although small things, they attracted a vast response from friends and family of Croft and cast members as can be seen from the photographs below.

Connecting with the cast’s friends online allowed for a real buzz to develop around the show and gave everyone that final boost they needed!

Posts throughout the week included….

By adding photographs from band call, technical rehearsal or post-show presentations from honoured guests allowed those that are attending the show later on in the week to have a quick look at how we transition from rehearsal room to stage and beyond. Although a small part of my job, it received a great response online.

And then Fiona and I faced our biggest challenge… VICTORIA WOOD!

Trying to keep our cast from telling the world that she was attending, included through out own excitement, was often difficult but but was all worth it come our Friday evening performance. I know the entire production team, backstage crew and cast were beyond excited and a little scared that the writer and creator of our show was attending that night but it turned out to be a truly mesmerising night for us all and was helped by the swamp of cameras that captured us all meeting Victoria backstage after the show. Finally, a moment where a publicity manager didn’t have to take control with a camera!

My favourite moment from Friday evening wasn’t meeting Victoria Wood but that in some photos, i’m stood almost immediately by her side and surprisingly without a camera, even thought i took over 20 photographs that evening of our guest. Often throughout the show, whenever a photograph was taken, i’m seen taking one of someone else. Sometimes the little things make those that dedicated extra time to a production really happy!

A few other great pieces of publcity between Fiona and myself included a video capture from reharsals of one of our leading ladies recieving a letter of good luck from original television and West End star Celia Imrie…

Or even competitions in magazines, video teasers, press releases online or even in local papers. Together it all added up for us working together and spreading a bit of the Acorn Antiques love across Sheffield and beyond!

When Saturday night’s performance ended and Acorn Antiques had reached its final point, alongside a great deal of relief, I was immensely proud of all that the show had achieved. I was very proud of my fellow cast members for their performances that week, myself included, but mostly for what Fiona and I had achieved along our journey to March 23rd at 9:45pm. I was then able to join my friends, family and cast members for a well-earned drink and celebration of a fantastic week in Manchesterford.

Acorn Antiques is a truly hilarious show and was brought together by a brilliantly talented cast and the perfect production team.

Its a show and journey I know I will never forget and hopefully be a show I can look back at, remember where my time as Publicity Manager at the Lyceum started, and look back without question and the fondest of memories.

Acorn Antiques … its been a COMPLETE pleasure!

Croft House’s next production at the Lyceum Theatre is the cult-classic Grease!

All being well I will be able to join back with Croft and lead their publicity with Grease! Keeping all crossed.

Until then… make me the one that you want 😉

William J.