Standing At The Sky’s Edge and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! win flagship musical prizes at the Olivier Awards

Performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Standing At The Sky’s Edge at the Olivier Awards 2023. Pictures: Christie Goodwin

• RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro triumphs with six awards including the Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play and the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director 
• Best Actress was awarded to Jodie Comer and Paul Mescal took home the Best Actor award 
• Standing At The Sky’s Edge won Mastercard Best New Musical 
• Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! won Magic Radio Best Musical Revival 
• Other acting wins included Katie Brayben, Beverley Knight, Arthur Darvill, Will Keen, Zubin Varla and Anjana Vasan 

The winners have been unveiled for this year’s Olivier Awards with Mastercard, British theatre’s biggest night which took place on at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by Hannah Waddingham. 

The biggest winner of the night was the RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, the theatre adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s 1989 coming-of-age anime film. The show won six of the nine categories it was nominated in, including the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director, awarded to Phelim McDermott, and the Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. The productions other wins included Tony Gayle for the d&b audiotechnik Award for Best Sound Design, Jessica Hun Hang Yun for the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design, Kimie Nakano for Best Costume Design and Tom Pye for the Blue-i Theatre Technology Award for Best Set Design. 

Three productions from the Almeida Theatre triumphed on the night. Will Keen won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Patriots, and Tammy Faye garnered two acting awards – Katie Brayben for Best Actress in a Musical and Zubin Varla for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical.  

The final multi-winning show at the Almeida Theatre was Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Paul Mescal won Best Actor for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski and Best Actress in a Supporting Role was awarded to Anjana Vasan for playing Stella. The play also won the esteemed Cunard Best Revival award. 

Best Actress went to Jodie Comer, for her performance in solo drama Prima Facie, which won the coveted Delta Air Lines Best New Play award. The filmed production was seen by hundreds of thousands of people, making it the highest-grossing Event Cinema ever released in the UK and Ireland. 

This Olivier Awards was a year of firsts. The recipients of both the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, Mescal and Comer, were nominated for their West End debuts, and 16 of the 18 named winners were receiving their first ever Olivier Award. 

[clockwise] Olivier Awards winners Beverley Knight, Arthur Darvill, Katie Brayben and Arlene Phillips. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Mastercard Best New Musical was awarded to Standing At The Sky’s Edge. Set in a council estate in Sheffield, where it debuted at the Crucible Theatre in 2019, the musical transferred to the National Theatre this year. Richard Hawley and Tom Deering also took home the award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations for this production. 

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! at the Young Vic Theatre, which has now transferred to London’s Wyndham’s Theatre, won Magic Radio Best Musical Revival; while one of the show’s leading actors, Arthur Darvill, was named Best Actor in a Musical.

As well as performing twice in the ceremony, Beverley Knight picked up the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her performance as Emmeline Pankhurst in the musical retelling of her daughter Sylvia’s lesser-known story at The Old Vic. 

Elsewhere, Dickson Mbi won Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his choreography of Enowate, and Traplord by Ivan Michael Blackstock won Best New Dance Production. In the opera categories, Will Kentridge won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, for his conception and direction of Sibyl and the TAIT Award for Best New Opera Production went to Alcina. Both productions were staged at the Royal Opera House. 

For the second year in a row, the Bush Theatre was home to the winner of Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre (representing smaller London venues). The winning show was The P Word, the tale of two very different gay Pakistani men navigating modern Britain. 

Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, which sees beloved animated character Duggee brought to life, won Best Family Show. 

The ceremony celebrated Derek Jacobi, who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to theatre throughout his career. 

The star-studded Olivier Awards ceremony featured performances from all the Mastercard Best New Musical nominees – The Band’s Visit, Standing At The Sky’s Edge, Sylvia and Tammy Faye. There were also performances from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Sister Act, both nominated for Magic Radio Best Musical Revival.  

Disney’s Newsies, whose choreographer Matt Cole won the Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer, and multi-Olivier winner The Book Of Mormon (celebrating 10 years in the West End) also performed.  

The show culminated in a tribute to Special Award recipient Arlene Phillips, with a performance from Grease The Musical – a production she famously choreographed. 

Full list of Olivier Awards 2023 winners:

Cunard Best Revival

A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Theatre

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Will Keen – Patriots, Almeida Theatre

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Anjana Vasan – A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Theatre

Blue-i Theatre Technology Award for Best Set Design

Tom Pye – RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

Best Costume Design

Kimie Nakano – RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

Best Actress

Jodie Comer – Prima Facie, Harold Pinter Theatre

Best Actor

Paul Mescal – A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Theatre

Outstanding Achievement in Opera

William Kentridge for his conception and direction of Sibyl, Barbican Theatre

TAIT Award for Best New Opera Production

Alcina by The Royal Opera, Royal Opera House

Delta Air Lines Best New Play

Prima Facie, Harold Pinter Theatre

Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director

Phelim McDermott – RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

Unusual Rigging Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre

The P Word, Bush Theatre

Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play

RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

Best Family Show

Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

Outstanding Achievement in Dance

Dickson Mbi for his choreography of Enowate, Sadler’s Wells

Best New Dance Production

Traplord by Ivan Michael Blackstock, 180 Studios

Magic Radio Best Musical Revival

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Young Vic

Best Original Score or New Orchestrations

Richard Hawley and Tom Deering, music & lyrics by Richard Hawley and orchestrations by Tom Deering – Standing At The Sky’s Edge, National Theatre (Olivier) 

Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer

Matt Cole – Disney’s Newsies, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

White Light Award for Best Lighting Design

Jessica Hung Han Yun – RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

d&b audiotechnik Award for Best Sound Design

Tony Gayle – RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical

Beverley Knight – Sylvia, The Old Vic

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical

Zubin Varla – Tammy Faye, Almeida Theatre 

Best Actor in a Musical

Arthur Darvill – Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Young Vic

Best Actress in a Musical

Katie Brayben – Tammy Faye, Almeida Theatre

Mastercard Best New Musical

Standing At The Sky’s Edge, National (Olivier)