Olivier Awards 2018

I've heard great things about Network and the design of that show, so I wouldn't be surprised to see that one take a couple of design catagories.

Slightly surprised at the lack of Bat Out of Hell. I've heard the show itself is flawed, but the design is great!

I'm usually really disappointed by the Olivier Award nominations, but this year I've been quite happy with the chosen nominees. Of course, there are a few puzzling decisions (after all, they are still the Olivier's), but overall I've been very pleased with these nominations. There are a few decisions that I disagree with, but on the whole it seems to be quite a good list!

The Positives:
-Obviously, I'm thrilled for the Hamilton nominations. Jamael Westman, Rachel John and Jason Penycooke were among my favourite performances of the year, and I am rooting for them to win in their respective categories.
-Very happy for the Follies love. I thought both Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton were both phenomenal, so glad to see they were both nominated.
-Over the moon to see that Ink picked up a few nominations. Ink one of only two plays that I gave a 5 star rating to (the other was Harry Potter), so glad to see it got the recognition it deserves.
-The nominations for An American in Paris were a very pleasant surprise. I thought it might be snubbed, so I was ecstatic to see that it picked up a few nominations.
-Also glad to see Follies, Jamie, 42nd Street, Young Frankenstein, Oslo and Dick Whittington pick up a few nominations! All of those were excellent and very worthy of all of the nominations that they received. 
-It was nice to see Paul Brown being recognised for his work on Iolanthe. For those that didn't know, Brown passed away in November last year. Luckily, his legacy has lived on.

The Negatives:
-Where was Obioma Ugoala?! He is arguably the best supporting actor in all of Hamilton, and that seems to be a fairly popular opinion, so why was he snubbed? I quite liked both Michael Jibson and Cleve September, but neither of them were anywhere near as good as Obioma Ugoala.
-I personally feel that The Grinning Man should have been nominated over Girl From The North Country for the Outstanding Achievement in Music. I haven't see Girl From The North Country yet, but surely an original score should be nominated over a jukebox musical? 
-A little sad to see David Tennant (Don Juan), Richard Coyle (Ink), Tamsin Greig (Labour of Love) and Anne-Marie Duff (Heisenberg) not receive nominations. In all fairness though, I haven't seen any of the other nominees in those two categories (Best Leading Actor in a Play and Best Leading Actress in a Play), so I'm probably not the best person to be commenting on those categories. Additionally, I know I was in a minority that actually liked Tennant's performance in Don Juan, so not quite as surprised about that one than Coyle and Greig being snubbed. 
-Didn't realise this was eligible originally, but after reading that it is, I'm a little surprised to see no nominations for Lady Windermere's Fan (particularly for Samantha Spiro and Jennifer Saunders). 

So on this boring Sunday afternoon, done a rundown of some of the catagories and tried to work out what will win/could win/should win. Some are off hype as I haven't seen them all, but this is what I could personally see happening, going by what will actually happen and not what I want to happen (as will be clear haha) and some of them are obviously shakey ground because of Hamilton but gut instinct.

New Play: The Ferryman
New Musical: Hamilton
Play Revival: Angels in America
Musical Revival: Follies
Comedy: Labor of Love
Entertainment: Five Guys Named Moe
Actor in a Play: Andrew Garfield (Angels in America)
Actress in a Play: Imelda Staunton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Actor in a Musical: John McCrea (Everybody's Talking About Jamie)
Actress in a Musical: Janie Dee (Follies)
Supporting Actor in a Play: Bertie Carvel (Ink)
Supporting Actress in a Play: Denise Gough (Angels in America)
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Jason Pennycooke (Hamilton)
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Tracie Bennett (Follies)
Director: Sam Mendes (The Ferryman)
Choreography: Andy Blankenbhuler (Hamilton)
Set: Bob Crowley (An American in Paris)
Costume: Roger Kirk (42nd Street)
Lighting: Jan Versweyveld (Network)
Sound: Nevin Steinberg (Hamilton)
Outstanding Achievement in Music: Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)

Hamilton (5)
Angels in America (3)
Follies (3)
The Ferryman (2)
42nd Street (1)
An American in Paris (1)
Everybody's Talking About Jamie (1)
Five Guys Named Moe (1)
Ink (1)
Labor of Love (1)
Network (1)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1)

It's ironic really as many of the male stars attending don't conform to this at all. I'm going and will probably be wearing a black tie of some sort but not the full penguin suit!!

I am amazed that Hamilton got good reviews. Was amazed the British got it. I am Australian its a terrific show .  Deserves every award. Fantastic writing. Surprise that Rachel did not get a nom. I guess it was not showy enough.   It will not be a clean sweep. As Bob the designer for AIP is a great designer

I know that Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will be performing ‘Don’t Even Know It’
As for the other shows, I would have thought Hamilton will do one of the usual performances such as ‘Alexander Hamilton’ or ‘Yorktown’

From what I've heard from some (having not seen Hamilton), Rachelle is the weak link in the cast anyway and Christine isn't in a role that attracts awards notice. If both of them got in as well as those nominated and the Supporting Actor who wasn't nominated that alot of people think should of been, all the eyes would be rolling at Hamilton's nine acting nominations.*

*not a critique of Hamilton, a critique of the idea of a show actually getting nine acting nominations and all the performers that would potentially miss out.

I actually don't think any of the acting performances in 'Hamilton' really deserve a nomination. As competent as they all are (and they are all very solid) they pretty much all pick a pitch and stick with it for the entire show, there's very little light and shade. To be fair to them though, the show itself doesn't really allow for shining performances though, it's too big, too pretty, too slick and too busy to do that and in the very rare moments when it does try to allow the actors to show some depth, they merely give performances that any half decent actor could give. By all means, honour the show with all the technical, musical and show awards but to say that the acting performances are the best of the year is a bit of a joke really. However, if they do win in those categories (and they most likely will) it will be because of the show they were in rather than the actual performances.

I have a spare ticket to the awards ceremony available if anyone fancies it - thread on the noticeboard

I would love to go to the Oliviers one day, but I would want to go in a year where there was more competition so it is more exciting to watch live. I feel like last year, much as I enjoyed Harry Potter, it was such a boring show to watch! And this year, its all about Hamilton, Follies and Angels in America, of which I only saw the NT Broadcast of Angels and loved! But I didn't care much for Follies and I haven't seen Hamilton!

Chita Rivera to appear at the Oliviers.

It's a great year to be going!