Olivier award nominations

Posted on March 26, 2013

Nominations have been announced for this year’s Olivier awards, presented by the Society of London Theatre and supported by Mastercard.

Three works are nominated for Best New Dance Production: Christopher Wheeldon’s Aeternum for The Royal Ballet (pictured), Alexander Ekman’s Cacti performed by Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Nancy Meckler and choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

The nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Dance are Lez Brotherston for the set and costumes for Matthew Bourne’s The Sleeping Beauty, a Gothic Fairy Tale, ILL-Abilities company at Sadler’s Wells Breakin’ Convention and Marianela Nuñez for her performances in Aeternum, Diana and Actaeon and Viscera with The Royal Ballet.

Choreographer Gillian Lynne will receive a Special Award, as will playwright Michael Frayn.

Einstein on the Beach, which has choreography by Lucinda Childs, is nominated for Best New Opera Production alongside English National Opera’s Caligula, La Traviata and Billy Budd.

The nominees for Best Theatre Choreographer are Scott Ambler for Chariots of Fire, Bill Deamer for Top Hat, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and Stephen Mear for Kiss Me, Kate.

Loserville, Soul Sister, The Bodyguard and Top Hat are nominated for Best New Musical, with A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Kiss Me, Kate and Sweeney Todd nominated for Best Musical Revival.

Tom Chambers, who went from Strictly Come Dancing to star in Top Hat, is nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, facing competition from Michael Ball for Sweeney Todd, Alex Bourne for Kiss Me, Kate and Will Young for Cabaret. Chambers’ Top Hat co-star, Summer Strallen, is nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, against Imelda Staunton for Sweeney Todd, Heather Headley for The Bodyguard and Hannah Waddingham for Kiss Me, Kate. The nominees for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical are Adam Garcia for Kiss Me, Kate, Debbie Kurup for The Bodyguard, Siân Phillips for Cabaret and Leigh Zimmerman for A Chorus Line.

Billy Elliot The Musical, Matilda The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked are nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award. See www.olivierawards.com for the full list of nominations.

Picture: Marianela Nuñez and Federico Bonelli in Aeternum. Photograph: Frederika Davis

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.