The Olivier Awards are probably the poshest-sounding gongs around. While the Oscar award was named after a librarian's uncle and the BAFTA after an unimaginative acronym, Laurence Olivier was one of the finest actors of his generation when things were very different: mobiles were for children, tweets are what he woke up to, and his idea of a social network would allegedly have been the gentleman's loos where the subterranean Cellar Bar at Zero Aldwych now sells cocktails in teacups.
Londonist was on hand beside the red carpet to see the runners, riders and blaggers turn up. Unsurprisingly, many of the questions aimed at the arriving celebs dealt with the cuts to subsidised theatre. Anne-Marie Duff and Tamsin Grieg both expounded on the importance of local theatre with Grieg lyrically adding that "storytelling is the medicine of the soul." Sir Patrick Stewart, on the other hand, had his deflector shields up: asked if he was "made up" with James Corden after last year's spat, he pithily retorted that he never wore make up on the street.
We missed the chance to ask Brian May (astronomy PhD and occasional musician) whether a supermoon could have caused the Japanese earthquake, we wanted to find out why Dave Stewart is looking more and more like Timothy Spall and we would have loved to have known if Matthew Fox was growing his big grey beard for a bet or as an impromptu animal sanctuary. People's Poppet Sheridan Smith brought along her dad Colin (bless) and waxed effusively over her new play but, alas, this time she didn't encourage us to fondle her tits.
We were glad to see Clybourne Park acclaimed as Best New Play, Sheridan Smith winning for Legally Blonde, La Bohème beating out far bigger competition for Best New Opera and Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods taking the award for best revived musical. Sondheim was also presented with a Special Award, Roger Allam deservedly grabbed the best actor gong for Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 while Michelle Terry, winner of the Best Female Performance prize at the recent OffWestEnd Awards for her role in Tribes, walked away as this year's Best Actress In A Supporting Role. Congratulations one and all.
A full list of winners can be seen here.
All photos (c) Lisa Thomson.