Wednesday, November 1, 2023

2023 Olivier Awards: Mescal, Comer and Totoro Win Big

Date:

Olivier Awards

This year’s Olivier Awards saw a host of stars take home awards, including Oscar nominee Paul Mescal, Killing Eve star Jodie Comer and My Neighbour Totoro, which won six Oliviers. The awards ceremony, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall, was hosted by Ted Lasso star and three-time Oliviers nominee Hannah Waddingham.

Mescal won Best Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire, and thanked his parents in his acceptance speech, saying he hopes his mother, who is undergoing cancer treatment, will get better soon. Comer won Best Actress for Prima Facie, and used her speech to encourage kids who haven’t been to drama school or can’t afford it to not let anyone tell them it’s impossible. She researched her role by sitting in on cases at the Old Bailey and speaking to barristers, judges and police officers.

Beverley Knight won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Sylvia. She did two performances during the ceremony – one for Sylvia, and the other for Sister Act – and said as she accepted her award: “Just over 100 years ago, Emmeline Pankhurst stood on this stage and said,’ I incite this meeting to rebellion’. She told each of the women in the room, ‘be militant in your own way’. The next year they banned the women’s Social and Political Union. One hundred later we’re stood on this stage – we have reclaimed the power for those women.”

Former Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill won Best Actor in a Musical for Oklahoma!, while Standing at the Sky’s Edge won Best New Musical. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Totoro, based on the Studio Ghibli classic animation and staged at the Barbican, won Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, plus Best Director.

Sir Derek Jacobi was given the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Dame Arlene Phillips was given a Special Award. The show ended with a performance from Grease The Musical, which she choreographed. Chris Bush, the writer of Standing at the Sky’s Edge, set in a council estate in Sheffield, thanked the city that inspired him, and called for art to be “available and accessible to every single person who wants to see it”.

The Olivier Awards celebrated a range of talent this year, from actors to directors to writers. It was an inspiring night that highlighted the power of art and the importance of making it accessible to everyone.

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