Olivier Awards 2016

It's a difficult one. I can understand not showing the finale so you're surprised but it's a shame they couldn't have found a way to showcase the other nominees.

I do love a medley, I think they should be obligatory so I have another song to listen to.

However, Raise You Up would have sold the show so much better than that performance tonight.

I hope these awards see an upsurge of ticket sales for the shows that won, particularly Kinky and In the Heights which were the big musical winners that are still open. I am seeing In the Heights today for the first time in their extra matinee so am excited to see the production with so much attention now on it!

Here are my thoughts. For once I have seen most of the winning shows. As others have said this year it was the nominations which made this years awards rather predictable, but also made me concerned that the Oliviers were going to pick the most famous names. However, unlike the Standard awards I don't think there are any obvious errors. The play awards were spread around so that only Hangmen won two, yet despite being the best play none of the cast were nominated, same with best revival, which I'm glad went to Ma Rainy, which shows how odd the nominations were. Of the main theatres The Donmar was probably the biggest loser overall as they came away with nothing.

With regard to musicals I was hoping for a surprise or two but I think the winners were fairly clear but its a shame that Emma Williams didn't get a share of the best supporting actress prize. That said I still don't understand the purpose of the Outstanding Achievement in Music award.

That Shakespeare tribute was the lamest thing ever.

Very surprised Les Mis didn't win, you come to expect them to win every award they're up for. Was lovely to see Phantom win, although wasn't that impressed with Ben. Emmi however I thought was amazing.

I do think they need to change up whoever produces and puts the show together...i think they need to get in people from the Tony's as that is always a much better show. Granted it probably has triple the budget but still. I don't imagine production wise next year will be much better as the RAH has a rather limiting stage creatively.

I thought Phantom looked really dated.

I enjoyed the performances and thought In The Heights came accross best. Kinky Boots didn't really do it for me at all. Imelda was lovely and Emma Williams superb but I don't think the song really showcased Mrs H, a big choreography number would have been better. Guys & Dolls looked great.
I was disappointed not to see Bend It or Seven Brides but will see them on the second broadcast tonight, I hope. Maybe they elected not to show the shows that had closed.
I don't think there was any need for Cyndi Lauper to perform, but I enjoyed Michael Feinstein.
Some odd editing choices too in the highlights programme - we got to the end and "Best Musical Revival" was sidelined into an "...earlier this evening"!
Quite a nice spread of awards - from the nominations (I didn't necessarily agree with all of those.)

I think it's a shame that the move to the RAH will take the awards out of the West End.

In The Heights cams across quite well a did prove that it could work on a standard stage/theatre however i think the choreography didn't come across as well as in the show (ironic given it won best choreography) because it's obviously designed for a smaller space and is very effective in that space and impressive in that space.

I'm looking forward to watching the whole thing on ITV3, particularly Mischief Theatre's antics, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and plenty more amusing stony silences in response to Michael Ball's excruciating gags.

The best of the performances on the ITV highlights show was undoubtedly In The Heights. Hopefully they will now seize the initiative and start advertising this show across the Underground much more extensively - The Railway Children is everywhere but I haven't seen a single poster for In The Heights recently.

I thought Kinky Boots came across okay. I'm glad they chose something other than Everybody Say Yeah but Raise You Up/Just Be would have thrust more of the cast (particularly Killian and Amy) to the fore.

Conversely, the choice of song for Mrs Henderson Presents did showcase its two nominees. It was a good performance but I can't help thinking that Welcome to the Windmill, the title song or Rubens and Renoir would have been more likely to succeed in selling the show to viewers at home.

It's a shame that Mrs Henderson Presents ended the evening empty handed. Not entirely unexpected given it was up against tough competition in all of its categories, particularly Lara Pulver and Amy Lennox for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical, but Emma Williams would have been an equally worthy winner and I wouldn't have begrudged it Best New Musical either.

P.S - how did everyone do with their predictions?? I predicted 20 categories and got 11 right and 9 wrong. I'll be on the panel next year!!

Went to the red carpet at 5:00pm and even though they'd run out of wristbands, they still had space! Didn't have the best space, but I got 7 autographs so I was chuffed! Wasn't overly impressed with Michael Ball's presenting skills. I really think it's a shame that these awards are shown live everywhere but the UK! Wasn't keen on the performances either. Thought Denise Gough's speech wasn't right as she was saying that the other nominees didn't deserve their places. Really happy for Kinky Boots and Imelda Staunton! I don't know how Kinky Boots are doing with ticket sales, but I think this will boost sales.