Olivier Awards 2017 Winners List

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has won a record breaking haul of nine awards at the Olivier Awards 2017. Here is the full list of  nominees  and winners (in bold) announced at the ceremony which took place at the Royal Albert Hall last night.

Best actor in a supporting role in a musical

• Adam J Bernard for Dreamgirls at Savoy Theatre
• Ian Bartholomew for Half a Sixpence at Noël Coward Theatre
• Ben Hunter for The Girls at Phoenix Theatre
• Andrew Langtree for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic

Best actress in a supporting role in a musical

• Rebecca Trehearn for Show Boat at New London Theatre
• Haydn Gwynne for The Threepenny Opera at National Theatre – Olivier
• Victoria Hamilton-Barritt for Murder Ballad at Arts Theatre
• Emma Williams for Half a Sixpence at Noël Coward Theatre

Outstanding achievement in music

• School Of Rock the Musical – Three children’s bands who play instruments live every night at New London Theatre
• Dreamgirls – music by Henry Krieger at Savoy Theatre
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – composer and arranger Imogen Heap at Palace Theatre
• Jesus Christ Superstar – The band and company creating the gig-like rock vibe of the original concept album of Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Best new dance production

• Betroffenheit by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler’s Wells
• Blak Whyte Gray by Boy Blue Entertainment at Barbican Theatre
• Giselle by Akram Khan and English National Ballet at Sadler’s Wells
• My Mother, My Dog And CLOWNS! by Michael Clark at Barbican Theatre

Outstanding achievement in dance

• English National Ballet for expanding the variety of their repertoire with Giselle and She Said at Sadler’s Wells
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for their London season at Sadler’s Wells
• Luke Ahmet for The Creation by Rambert at Sadler’s Wells

Best entertainment and family

• The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells
• Cinderella at London Palladium
• David Baddiel – My Family: Not The Sitcom at Vaudeville Theatre
• Peter Pan at National Theatre – Olivier

Best theatre choreographer

• Matthew Bourne for The Red Shoes at Sadler’s Wells
• Peter Darling and Ellen Kane for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic
• Steven Hoggett for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Drew McOnie for Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Best musical revival

• Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
• Funny Girl at Savoy Theatre
• Show Boat at New London Theatre
• Sunset Boulevard at London Coliseum

Best actor in a musical

• Andy Karl for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic
• David Fynn for School Of Rock The Musical at New London Theatre
• Tyrone Huntley for Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
• Charlie Stemp for Half A Sixpence at Noël Coward Theatre

Best actress in a musical

• Amber Riley for Dreamgirls at Savoy Theatre
• Glenn Close for Sunset Boulevard at London Coliseum
• “The Girls” – Debbie Chazen, Sophie-Louise Dann, Michele Dotrice, Claire Machin, Claire Moore and Joanna Riding – for The Girls at Phoenix Theatre
• Sheridan Smith for Funny Girl at Savoy Theatre

Best revival

• Yerma at Young Vic
• The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• This House at Garrick Theatre
• Travesties at Apollo Theatre

Best new comedy

• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at National Theatre – Dorfman
• The Comedy about a Bank Robbery at Criterion Theatre
• Nice Fish at Harold Pinter Theatre
• The Truth at Wyndham’s Theatre

Outstanding achievement in an affiliate theatre

• Rotterdam at Trafalgar Studios 2
• Cuttin’ It at The Maria, Young Vic
• The Government Inspector at Theatre Royal Stratford East
• The Invisible Hand at Tricycle Theatre
• It is Easy to be Dead at Trafalgar Studios 2

Best lighting design

• Neil Austin for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Lee Curran for Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
• Natasha Katz for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• Hugh Vanstone for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic

Best sound design

• Gareth Fry for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Paul Arditti for Amadeus at National Theatre – Olivier
• Adam Cork for Travesties at Apollo Theatre
• Nick Lidster for Autograph for Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Best costume design

• Katrina Lindsay for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Gregg Barnes for Dreamgirls at Savoy Theatre
• Hugh Durrant for Cinderella at London Palladium
• Rob Howell for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic

Best set design

• Christine Jones for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Bob Crowley for Disney’s Aladdin at Prince Edward Theatre
• Bob Crowley for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• Rob Howell for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic

Best actor in a supporting role

• Anthony Boyle for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Freddie Fox for Travesties at Apollo Theatre
• Brian J Smith for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• Rafe Spall for Hedda Gabler at National Theatre – Lyttelton

Best actress in a supporting role

• Noma Dumezweni for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Melissa Allan, Caroline Deyga, Kirsty Findlay, Karen Fishwick, Kirsty MacLaren, Frances Mayli McCann, Joanne McGuinness and Dawn Sievewright for Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at National Theatre – Dorfman
• Clare Foster for Travesties at Apollo Theatre
• Kate O’Flynn for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre

Best new opera production

• Akhnaten at London Coliseum
• 4.48 Psychosis at Lyric Hammersmith
• Cosi Fan Tutte at Royal Opera House
• Lulu at London Coliseum

Outstanding achievement in opera

• Mark Wigglesworth for his conducting of Don Giovanni and Lulu at London Coliseum
• Renee Fleming for her performance in Der Rosenkavalier at Royal Opera House
• Stuart Skelton for his performance in Tristan and Isolde at London Coliseum

Best actor

• Jamie Parker for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Ed Harris for Buried Child at Trafalgar Studios 1
• Tom Hollander for Travesties at Apollo Theatre
• Ian McKellen for No Man’s Land at Wyndham’s Theatre

Best actress

• Billie Piper for Yerma at Young Vic
• Glenda Jackson for King Lear at The Old Vic
• Cherry Jones for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• Ruth Wilson for Hedda Gabler at National Theatre – Lyttelton

Best director

• John Tiffany for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Simon Stone for Yerma at Young Vic
• John Tiffany for The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s Theatre
• Matthew Warchus for Groundhog Day at The Old Vic

Best new play

• Harry Potter And The Cursed Child at Palace Theatre
• Elegy at Donmar Warehouse
• The Flick at National Theatre – Dorfman
• One Night In Miami… at Donmar Warehouse

Best new musical

• Groundhog Day at The Old Vic
• Dreamgirls at Savoy Theatre
• The Girls at Phoenix Theatre
• School of Rock the Musical at New London Theatre

Special award

• Sir Kenneth Branagh

Frank & Lola Review

The Plot

A driven and successful Las Vegas chef starts a romance with an aspiring young fashion designer. However the couple’s brief happiness soon begins to unravel in a downward spiral of betrayal, inner demons and shocking obsession.

The Good

Frank & Lola opens with an attention grabbing bang, firmly establishing a compellingly dark and aggressively sexual tone for this tense noir thriller.  Debut director Matthew M Ross sets out to be daring and instantly succeeds with the help of a bold script and suitably intense star turns from leads Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots.

Michael Shannon has firmly cemented his leading man credentials with a series of scene stealing and often villainous performances in a diverse range of big screen blockbusters. Whether portraying an intergalactic warlord or a more mundane figure, Shannon’s performances are consistently imbued with fiercely intense and broodingly dangerous qualities. Few actors are able to capture the subtle nuances of projecting tangible menace and fragile vulnerability simultaneously. Luckily Michael Shannon is one actor capable of delivering exactly that kind of performance.

Shannon is able to turn his character Frank into a coiled spring of ominous sexual tension. The more dangerous and unpleasant aspects of the character are masterfully balanced with Shannon’s innate screen gravitas and oddly menacing allure.

Imogen Poots is an actress consistently hailed as being possessed of considerable potential. In truth her eclectic career has sadly seen her often languishing in films that are too resigned to mediocrity to make best use of her undoubted gifts. In Frank & Lola, Poots has finally found at least one film able to harness the very best of her acting strengths. It’s a fine compliment to say that the young British star more than holds her own alongside Shannon’s domineering powerhouse performance.

Following the brief optimism of Frank and Lola’s initial courtship it’s safe to say that the disintegration of that trust and love is uncomfortable but utterly scintillating material. It deserves to be seen and discussed.

The Bad

Frank & Lola toys with the pretense of being a love story but soon largely abandons the satisfying warmth of romantic happiness in favour of increasingly dark and unexpected directions. Though the film manages to maintain a hypnotic fascination for much of that descent it does struggle to deliver on all that fine early tension during a somewhat less compelling climax. Indeed it’s also fair to admit that while Frank & Lola does grip audiences with a noirish web of intrigue and all-star performances, it will no doubt remain a little too disturbingly dark and cynical for some tastes.

The Ugly Truth

Propelled by the electric tension between two gifted and charismatic leads, Frank & Lola is an expectation defying ride that grips audiences in intense and intimate ways.  It marks an auspicious debut for director Matthew M. Ross and serves to only further cement Shannon’s unique talents and Poots’s well-deserved rising star status. Overall the film is deliciously dark, seductive and fascinating.

Ron Howard Talks Arrested Development Season 5

While walking the red carpet in London to promote new National Geographic drama series Genius Ron Howard spoke about the comedy genius of Arrested development and confirmed the status of the fan favourite show. Howard who both narrates and co-stars in the series confirmed that the current plan remains for a 5th season to return to Netflix, as opposed to pursuing the long promised big screen version.

Howard confirms that show creator Mitch Hurwitz has a brilliant concept for the new episodes which would ideally see the entire cast return. Although Howard admits the growing stardom of the cast makes arrangements difficult he interestingly confirms that the plan is to have the fifth season return to the original show format of having the ensemble cast film together.

The fourth season which marked the shows much anticipated return was shot out of necessity with members of the cast largely working separately on episodes which primarily focused on individual characters. This allowed the show to be filmed more flexibly around the casts’s limited availability but was met with largely disappointed reaction form fans. Indeed the entire ensemble cast actually only really featured together in one scene during the fourth season, with editing done to loosely stitch the various strands of the story together after the fact

While as always Howard stops short of outright confirming that the fifth season will begin filming any time soon, at least fans can be confident that the production plans are still progressing and that should the series return it will hopefully be in a more complete format.

For now check out the video below and try not to shout out too many of your favourite Tobias quotes while you watch…

MTV Movie & TV Awards Goes Gender Neutral

MTV has officially scrapped the male and female categories for their forthcoming Movie and TV Awards ceremony due to be held in LA in May. The move follows recent debate surrounding the Emmys and the news that Billions star Asia Kate Dillon had been asked to choose whether to be considered for best actor or best actress. Although born female the Billions star does not  now choose to identify as either male or female.

Although high profile ceremony’s like the Oscars and BAFTAs still have clear splits for male and female categories other ceremonies such as the Grammys and National Television Awards don’t have gender specific distinctions.

The move from MTV will likely be greeted by inevitably mixed reactions. Some will welcome the change as a symbolic step in recognizing increasingly flexible social attitudes towards gender labels while others will dismiss the change as unnecessary identity politics being deferred to even further  by a fervently liberal media. Of course many will no doubt also consider it largely irrelevant whether Actors and Actress compete for shared honors or separate categories.

Although MTV’s decision is unlikely to put any direct pressure on the Oscars or BAFTAs to rethink their categories, it will at least further fuel the debate around the increasingly emotive subject.

BAFTA Games Awards 2017 Winners