My Neighbour Totoro was the the big winner at the 2023 Olivier Awards.
The RSC production, an adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s 1989 coming-of-age anime film, 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 Best Sound Design, Jessica Hun Hang Yun for the Best Lighting Design, Kimie Nakano for Best Costume Design and Tom Pye for Best Set Design.
The Almeida Theatre was the most victorious venue on the night, with six awards across three productions.
Will Keen won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Patriots, and Tammy Faye landed two awards in acting categories – 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 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.
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.
Best New Musical was awarded to Standing At The Sky’s Edge. Set in a council estate in Sheffield, where it debuted in 2019, the musical transferred to the National Theatre this year. Richard Hawley & Tom Deering also took home the award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations for this production.
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.
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, hosted by Hannah Waddingham at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrated Sir Derek Jacobi, who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to theatre throughout his career.
Choreographer Matt Cole won the Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Disney’s Newsies.
The show culminated in a tribute to Special Award recipient Dame Arlene Phillips, with a performance from Grease The Musical – a production she famously choreographed.
