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Olivier Awards 2008

Grosvenor House Hotel, London

9th March 2008

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A Feature by Tim Jeeves for EXTRA! EXTRA!

Photograher - Dominic Howe

Laurence Olivier, God bless his resting soul, donated his face to a trophy and his name to the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1984. In the years since, the winners’ list of the Oliviers has become quite a who’s who of West End theatre.

Arthur Miller, Kevin Spacey, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart - all can be seen on the various lists dotted around the internet whilst my personal favourite - the highlight of any Saturday night out in Vauxhall – ‘post-gay cabaret’ Duckie garnered an award for Best Entertainment in 2004 with their splendid show C’est Barbican.

But let’s not dwell in the past, for 2008 is where we are, and the recent Olivier Awards are what we are gathered here to explore.

So, first things first.

Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane is one posh establishment. The toilets are perhaps the most glamorous I have ever used – the disposable napkins supplied therein for drying your hands provided a truly extraordinary experience. Soft… absorbent… strong… the words don’t even begin to do them justice. And in such fabulous fancyings it’s just possible that you will begin to appreciate the joys of the tissue used by the movers and shakers of the theatrical elite...

A big thumbs up to the toilets then, though unfortunately, the food left a lot to be desired.

Typically I’m more than happy to go see a show where there’s no press tid-bits to snack on though the knowledge I was to visit a hotel on the second most expensive square on the Monopoly board did, I confess, provoke slightly higher expectations than accompany a visit to a pub theatre in Islington. With this at the back of my mind, the two bowls of stone cold oven chips and the accompanying selection of cheese sandwiches (rather excessively attended by a selection of cheese slices) was always going to disappoint I’m afraid.

This rather disenchanting start was further compounded by the fact that, for the first half of the night, we weren’t allowed out of the pressroom and, accompanied by a row of journalists writing, Photo-shopping and e-mailing away furiously, were expected to watch events proceed via video links (neither of which had any sound for the first half hour).

Nevertheless, some surreptitious skipping to the toilet did mean that some of the charm of Richard E Grant’s opening speech was witnessed – the highlight being his genius suggestion that Arts Council cuts could be avoided if the government stopped funding an illegal war – and before too long the stars began to journey into our enclave in order to have photos taken and words exchanged with the gathered gaggle of gung-ho journos.

Richard E. Grant

Rather unsurprisingly, everyone, from Special Award winner Andrew Lloyd Webber to Best Newcomer Tom Hiddlestone, felt ‘great’ or ‘fantastic’ to receive their award, though Rory Kinnear (who won the Best Performance in a Supporting Role trophy) was quite charmingly ‘bamboozled’ and rather astutely observed that he would feel different the next day than he did on the night itself.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Danny Dyer, presenter of Tom Hiddlestone’s award for Best Newcomer, told us that his much reported tirade against James McAvoy was down to the fact that, when interviewed by The London Paper he’d just had a row with his missus and was in a bad mood, and as such shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Yet relational strife did not, he says, affect his claim that Orlando Bloom is a rubbish actor.

Danny Dyer

The works of Shakespeare proved that they are the best canvas on which to demonstrate acting talent, with three of the Best Actor nominees coming from said oeuvre – Ian McKellen’s King Lear, Patrick Stewart’s Macbeth and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Othello. In the event, it was the latter, fresh from picking up the prize for Best Thriller at the Empire Awards (conveniently taking place in the same building) who won the award, and he would have also been given Best Suit, Most Fantastic Hairline and Most Genuine Person in Front of the Press had I been in a position of any power.

Chitwetel Ejiofor

As the guests settled into their dinner at the halfway point, it was with some sadistic glee that myself and Extra! Extra! photographer Dominic Howe realised that Hairspray, nominated a record 11 times for the Awards, had yet to receive a single one. This lack of charity was soon to dissipate when we realised that the relevant prizes were to be given in the second half (in which it picked up four awards).

Michael Ball with Barbara Windsor

Also worth a mention for its gluttonous appetite was the National Theatre, which claimed 6 awards for productions it staged (no doubt providing useful justification for those in favour of the Arts Council’s increase in its funding amongst decimation elsewhere in theatre world).

The Oliviers are without doubt a high point in the calendar of the West End and for Leanne Jones, the winner of Best Actress in a Musical, whose fairy tale rise from working in a call centre a year ago to being the focus of such attention, it must be one of the most remarkable evenings of her life so far.

Leanne Jones with Jeff Goldblum

For this particular writer though, whilst seeing the glitz and ceremony was certainly a novel experience, my highlight was that, for a few short hours, I had the absolute pleasure of being in the same room as both Gandalf and Jean-Luc Picard.

Now that’s what I call an accomplishment.

Olivier Award Winners 2008

Best Lighting Design - Howard Harrison for Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Macbeth

Best Sound Design - Paul Arditti and Jocelyn Pook for the National's production of Saint Joan

Best Newcomer in a Play - Tom Hiddleston for his role of Posthumus in Cymbeline at the Barbican

Best New Dance Production - The Royal Ballet for its revival of George Balanchine’s three-part ballet Jewels at the Royal Opera House

Outstanding Achievement in Dance - The Royal Ballet for its revival of George Balanchine’s three-part ballet Jewels at the Royal Opera House

Best Costume Design - Vicki Mortimer for The Man Of Mode at the National Theatre

Best Set Design - Rae Smith and Handspring Puppet Company for the National's production of War Horse

Outstanding Achievement or Performance in an Affiliate Theatre - Gone Too Far! in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court

Best Performance in a Supporting Role - Rory Kinnear in the role of Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man Of Mode at the National Theatre

Best Actor - Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse

Best Actress - Kristin Scott Thomas in the role of Arkadina in the Royal Court’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.