Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily.

First the good news — normal service was (finally!) restored to my website on Friday, after nearly three weeks offline, though the newsletters have still appeared in your inbox as usual. (If anyone isn’t subscribed but wishes to be, you only need to send your email address to: ShentonStageMailingList@gmail.com. And for those who don’t get this newsletter, it’s re-published on my website; all the missing editions have now been added online, too).

THE OLIVIER AWARDS

Last night saw the presentation of this year’s Laurence Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. A notably diverse selection of nominees were in contention: it seems to have been a deliberate effort by the organisers to represent as wide a grouping of performers and creatives as possible.

This was presumably aided, too, by shows like MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO that included the first East Asian nominee ever to be nominated for an Olivier in Mei Mac (a Best Actress nominee) amongst a total haul of nine nominations, the most for any single production, translating six of them into wins, also the biggest haul of the night; FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE HUE GETS TOO HEAVY, nominated for Best New Play as well as for tshe six-strong cast, jointly nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; the National’s BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY, with nominations for Best Actor for Giles Terera and Sule Rimi for best supporting actor; and the Donmar’s UK premiere for the MIddle East set THE BAND’S VISIT (Alon Moni Aboutboul was nominated for best musical actor and Miri Mesika for best musical actress, with Sharif Afifi and Peter Polycarpou both nominated for best supporting actor in a musical).

The big musical winners were STANDING AT THE SKY’S EDGE (pictured above, deservedly named Best New Musical and also winning for Best Score or original orchestrations), OKLAHOMA! (Best Musical Revival, plus Arthur Darvill for Actor in a Musical), and TAMMY FAYE (winning awards for actress in a musical Katie Brayben and supporting musical actor Zubin Varla), while Beverley Knight won her first Olivier for supporting musical actress for the Old VIc’s SYLVIA.

Apart from MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO, the other biggest play trophies were taken by PRIMA FACIE (about to transfer to Broadway this month, named Best New Play, with Jodie Comer also taking the best actress award) and the Almeida’s A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (named Best Revival, with Paul Mescal taking the best actor award and Anjana Vasan named Best supporting actress).

MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO Is already announced to be returning to the Barbican; surely STANDING AT THE SKY’S EDGE will now also see a London return.]

As ever, one of the most moving moments of the ceremony was the vldeo tribute to some of those who have passed in the previous year, from producers and theatre owners to master carpenters, musicians, actors, agents and publicists. This year it was lovely to see my first boss Robert De Wynter acknowledged (pictured above) — I wrote about his funeral and his impact on my life here — as well as West End PR Janine Shalom, whose death at the age of 63 I recently noted here.

SHOWS AHEAD IN LONDON, SELECTED REGIONAL THEATRES AND ON BROADWAY

My regularly updated feature on shows in London, selected regional theatres and on Broadway is here: https://shentonstage.com/theatre-openings-from-w-c-april-3/

I had been unable to update this during the last three weeks when my website was down, but now that it has been restored the feature has many casting updates and new entries, including new West End productions like THE CROWN JEWELS (at the Garrick Theatre in July), the transfer of DR SEMMELWEIS from Bristol Old Vic (with Mark Rylance, to the Harold PInter, opening in July), and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (at @sohoplace, the first new play to premiere there in May), plus the additions of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG and SUMMER, 1976 to the Broadway schedule.

The coming week sees the opening of Ivo van Hove’s A LITTLE LIFE with a British cast led by James Norton (pictured above left, with Luke Thompson) at the Harold Pinter Theatre (reviews are embargoed to 11.59pm on Wednesday, when mine will appear on the website of PLAYS INTERNATIONAL), as well as the opening of a new musical SHUCKED on Broadway tomorrow.

See you here on Friday

I will be back on Friday with my regular The Week in Review(s) column of the previous seven days of news and reviews (including my own). If you can’t wait that long, I may also be found on Twitter (for the moment) here: https://twitter.com/ShentonStage/ (though not as regularly on weekends)