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The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘What would a kid do in this situation?' Engineering Starlight Express's dazzling return
Howard Hudson (lighting designer): I saw the original production many times. The scale and feel of it were unlike anything else. Complete escapism. I used to skate around the living room singing the songs. Andrzej Goulding (video designer and animator): It's such a part of popular culture – Starlight Express is even referenced on Family Guy. But I didn't know a huge amount about the musical aside from the fact that it was on roller-skates and it was trains. Tim Hatley (set designer): I was studying at Central Saint Martins in the 80s and went to see Starlight because its designer, John Napier, was coming in to do a project with us. We'd been doing Shakespeare but this was almost like a fairground ride. I mean, they high-fived the audience – some of whom had seen the show 50 times. Gabriella Slade (costume designer): People who saw Starlight when they were kids are now bringing their own families. In our audience you can be up close with some of these characters and costumes. That's quite rare. Tim Hatley: For those who saw it the first time round, we wanted to give it a different spin. With a flexible space like this, the world is your oyster. Do it in the round? Have it like a tennis court? We had lots of thoughts and lots of models. Everybody's waiting on me to come up with the concept. Lighting, video, even skating and choreography – they can't get on with their work until they know where the slopes are and how steep they are and where the video wall is. Gabriella Slade: The original Starlight is probably one of the most iconic shows of all time. From a design point of view, it's just heaven. On a revival it's important, I think, to reference what has been before to a degree – we wanted to continue that spirit but also, 40 years on, shape it for a new generation. Tim Hatley: We didn't want to just copy what John had done before. And we didn't want to be stuck with real trains running through tunnels and over bridges. Gabriella Slade: The brief is really tricky! In our early conversations, we talked about the core components of a train and how to present those in a costume for performers who need to be able to move as easily as possible and to fall safely. There was a lot of aerodynamic chat! Andrzej Goulding: As soon as we landed on the idea of train tracks through space, where we're sat as an audience became the race planet. There are other planets out there, like Electra's and Greaseball's. There's no direction of that in the script. It's completely left up to the team. References can come from anywhere but there's that amazing 80s advert for Milky Way with the red car and the blue car where they're kind of floating through the air. It's that kind of world. Tim Hatley: With video gaming, what kids are used to now is very different to playing with the old Hornby train sets. Andrzej Goulding: I had a train set as a kid, one of those little wooden ones. You pretend they're anything. Starlight was like mixing Mario Kart with trains and setting it in space. The reason you can go over the top is it's the point of view of a child. Having the kid, Control, on stage is a bit of a masterstroke – you can do even more because they're directing what happens. We'd often ask: What would a kid do in this situation? Gabriella Slade: We're in a child's bedroom – Control's outfit had to look like it had been made at home or bought, or a hybrid of the two. The jumpsuit vibe felt right – a bit cosmic. Howard Hudson: We had to keep the childlike essence of the piece – this is a child's imagination – while using such ultra-modern technology. So there are moments that are incredibly simple, like a single star flying in. Tim Hatley: There were three separate designs: auditorium, front of house and the show. As a theatre designer, you're not usually governing where the audience are going to sit – or worried about where they are going to be coming in and out. With this, it was a priority. Gabriella Slade: First off, you read the script, listen to the music and collate research images. From there, you form sketches or initial shapes and start to think about fabrics. Then you go into much more fully rendered concept sketches integrating the fabrics. That, of course, is costed and there's a process of research and development. We had a skate school for a number of weeks so were able to access our company quite early on for fittings. Some of the shapes are not form-fitting, so we needed to make sure they would be all right going around corners in the auditorium. Tim Hatley: I'm very old fashioned. I work with model boxes. We had an enormous one for this because there were so many collaborators who weren't necessarily in the world of theatre, but also because it was a space that didn't really exist yet. So people needed to understand the auditorium. Howard Hudson: The skaters had to get used to having mega bright lights in their eyes as they try to navigate these routes around the space. There are more than 600 moving lights in the show, which has probably one of the biggest rigs for a musical. For the Starlight sequence in act two we have 250 of these star units that fly above the audience – each has got six LEDs on it. Then there's however many kilometres of LED tape. Tim Hatley: We've got LED set into the floor and the skaters go over that. It's not like using the old tungsten lights which got very hot, but it does warm up, which causes the plastic on top to expand. So there was a lot of development. I was able to give Howard places to put lights where you normally wouldn't have them, like coming up through the floor. It became clear to me that it needed a rock concert feel. The songs were rearranged to have a more contemporary, poppy sound too. Howard Hudson: Early on, we built a pre-visualisation studio with huge screens and had a 3D version of the set on a computer. Andrzej was able to feed his content into that and we had the whole rig there. So we would watch actors rehearse a number then go into our studio and work out how to light it. Andrzej Goulding: Lighting and video are closely intertwined because there's only so many photons you can throw on stage. Howard and I have worked together several times. The Starlight rehearsal room had a full set and the two of us sat there tracking the race, drawing a map of what goes where. The hardest thing in theatre, compared with film, is that an audience can look anywhere. Our job is to pull the attention of the observer. We used a live camera in the races to help follow the characters. And we used a leaderboard. It took us a long time just to sculpt the journey of those races. Tim Hatley: For the ramps, we talked to skaters who had been in the show before. How do we get that amount of speed up in that amount of space? Those were technical problems which were all new to me. We collaborated with a company that builds skate ramps and parks. It's a timber surface – we've used some metallic paints in there too, to pick up the video. We've got moving scenery but where those joins are the surfaces have to be perfect and seamless. You can't have any little gaps that might get worse during the run. Andrzej Goulding: Video design should only be there if it's serving the story. If you're just doing something for the sake of looking fun, it weirdly makes things slower. There's also only so much spectacle you can do. A show is all about peaks and troughs, following the storytelling. If you're peaking the entire time, it's boring. Howard Hudson: Luke [Sheppard, the show's director] has the most technical mind. I'm convinced he could be a lighting designer if he wanted to. We've collaborated for years and have developed a kind of shorthand – we started out at the Finborough and now work on these massive commercial musicals together. Set designers build models and costume designers do drawings whereas lighting is so visceral. You need to see the lights in the space, so we're always the last people to come in. And we're doing our job in front of 150 people in the theatre. So it's a bit nervy. Gabriella Slade: It was important to make sure that each group of characters had a visual identity: carriages, trucks, steam engines, electric trains. They needed to feel cohesive when put together but have differentiations as well. Campbell Young and Helen Keane were our wigs and hair designers and Jackie Saundercock was our makeup designer. We had a brilliant collaborative relationship. The integration of the hair and makeup feels like one unit, which is always the aim. Each character has their own iconography, too. The designs need to be bold enough for you to identify who's who and where they are in the races. Howard Hudson: For Electra's song AC/DC we wanted laser units to give a quality of light you don't get from normal fixtures. We went down to a laser company and spent a day experimenting with the looks we could get. It almost comes out of nowhere in the show and adds another layer of spectacle you don't get out of a traditional lighting unit. Gabriella Slade: The backpacks have handles, which are important for racing together. For me, the backpacks suggest a power bank or a battery – and they light up so actually have their own batteries! It's all an extension of the actual costume. Greaseball's spark gun creates another really lovely extension of the image. It's got the same yellow and black scheme and that moment really fits the energy of her song. Howard Hudson: We couldn't use traditional manual followspots because people are moving so quickly. So we use an automated system called Zactrack. Performers wear tags that send tracking data to the lighting desk, and we're able to tell the lights which person to follow around the space. Andrzej Goulding: Video is slow. Every time we want to do something, it's got to be rendered. We've got all these multiple layers. You've got to put in a lot of hours. I'll sit up until three in the morning if I'm not happy with one little thing. I just want to make sure it's right. The scale of it was enormous. I tend to work on my own but got the biggest team I've ever had on a show. If you surround yourself with the right people it's fun to do. And super satisfying when everything's working in synergy. Howard Hudson: Whenever I go in and see it again, I think: Crikey, how on earth did we achieve that? Tim Hatley: There's not a bad seat in the house, and they're all very different. I don't think I've designed a show where that has been the case so much. Sitting in what we call the side tracks, looking down, you're very close. If you're at the back, you get the whole overview and a real sense of the video. Gabriella Slade: Some fans come in costume. It's so lovely to have people recreate the designs. I'm never not amazed that they want to spend the time to do that. Andrzej Goulding: The craziest thing was going on to do a 'normal' show afterwards – one without people on roller skates! You're wondering why everyone's moving around the stage so slowly. Starlight Express is booking at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre, London, until March 2026
The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Olivier awards 2025: full list of winners
Best new musical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, music and lyrics by Darren Clark, book and lyrics by Jethro Compton at Ambassadors theatre – WINNER! MJ the Musical, book by Lynn Nottage at Prince Edward theatre Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, music, lyrics and book by Dave Malloy at Donmar Warehouse Why Am I So Single?, music, lyrics and book by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss at Garrick theatre Best set designJon Bausor for set design, Toby Olié and Daisy Beattie for puppetry design and Satoshi Kuriyama for projection design for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Frankie Bradshaw for set design for Ballet Shoes at National Theatre – Olivier Es Devlin for set design for Coriolanus at National Theatre – OlivierTom Scutt for set design for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre – WINNER! Best lighting design Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre – WINNER! Howard Hudson for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Howard Hudson for Starlight Express at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre Aideen Malone for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Best new opera productionDuke Bluebeard's Castle by English National Opera at London ColiseumFesten by the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House – WINNER! L'Olimpiade by Irish National Opera and the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House The Tales of Hoffmann by the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House Outstanding achievement in operaAigul Akhmetshina for her performance in Carmen at Royal Opera HouseAllan Clayton for his performance in Festen at Royal Opera House – WINNER! Jung Young-doo for his direction of Lear at Barbican theatre Best family show Brainiac Live at Marylebone theatre – WINNER! Maddie Moate's Very Curious Christmas at Apollo theatre The Nutcracker at Polka theatre Rough Magic at Shakespeare's Globe – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Best new production in affiliate theatreAnimal Farm at Theatre Royal Stratford East by George Orwell, adapted by Tatty HennessyBoys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner at Soho theatre – WINNER! English by Sanaz Toossi at Kiln theatre Now, I See by Lanre Malaolu at Theatre Royal Stratford East What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander at Marylebone theatre Best new dance production Assembly Hall by Kidd Pivot, Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler's Wells – WINNER! Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada – Pite/Kudelka/Portner by the National Ballet of Canada at Sadler's Wells Theatre of Dreams by Hofesh Shechter Company at Sadler's Wells An Untitled Love by A.I.M by Kyle Abraham at Sadler's Wells Outstanding achievement in danceSarah Chun for her performance in Three Short Ballets at Royal Opera House – Linbury theatre Tom Visser for his lighting design of Angels' Atlas as part of Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada – Pite/Kudelka/Portner at Sadler's WellsEva Yerbabuena for her performance in Yerbagüena at Sadler's Wells – WINNER! Best actor in a supporting roleJorge Bosch for Kyoto at @sohoplace Tom Edden for Waiting for Godot at Theatre Royal HaymarketElliot Levey for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre – WINNER! Ben Whishaw for Bluets at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Best actress in a supporting roleSharon D Clarke for The Importance of Being Earnest at National Theatre – Lyttelton Romola Garai for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatreRomola Garai for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre – WINNER! Gina McKee for The Years at Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Best theatre choreographerMatthew Bourne for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre Julia Cheng for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Hofesh Shechter for Oedipus at the Old VicChristopher Wheeldon for MJ the Musical at Prince Edward theatre – WINNER! Best costume designHugh Durrant for Robin Hood at the London Palladium Sachiko Nakahara for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Tom Scutt for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatreGabriella Slade for Starlight Express at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre – WINNER! Best sound design Nick Lidster for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre – WINNER! Christopher Shutt for Oedipus at the Old Vic Thijs van Vuure for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Koichi Yamamoto for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Outstanding musical contributionMark Aspinall for musical supervision and additional orchestrations for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatreDarren Clark for music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements and Mark Aspinall for musical direction, music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre – WINNER! Dave Malloy for orchestrations and Nicholas Skilbeck for musical supervision for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Asaf Zohar for compositions and Gavin Sutherland for dance arrangements and orchestration for Ballet Shoes at National Theatre – Olivier Best actress in a supporting role in a musicalLiv Andrusier for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Amy Di Bartolomeo for The Devil Wears Prada at Dominion theatre Beverley Klein for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatreMaimuna Memon for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse – WINNER! Best actor in a supporting role in a musicalAndy Nyman for Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium Raphael Papo for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatreLayton Williams for Titanique at Criterion theatre – WINNER! Tom Xander for Mean Girls at Savoy theatre Best new entertainment or comedy playBallet Shoes adapted by Kendall Feaver at National Theatre – Olivier Inside No 9 Stage/Fright by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith at Wyndham's theatre Spirited Away adapted by John Caird and co-adapted by Maoko Imai at London ColiseumTitanique by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli at Criterion theatre – WINNER! Best director Eline Arbo for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre – WINNER! Jordan Fein for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Nicholas Hytner for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Robert Icke for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre Best actressHeather Agyepong for Shifters at Duke of York's theatreLesley Manville for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre – WINNER! Rosie Sheehy for Machinal at the Old Vic Meera Syal for A Tupperware of Ashes at National Theatre – Dorfman Indira Varma for Oedipus at the Old Vic Best actorAdrien Brody for The Fear of 13 at Donmar Warehouse Billy Crudup for Harry Clarke at Ambassadors theatre Paapa Essiedu for Death of England: Delroy at @sohoplaceJohn Lithgow for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre – WINNER! Mark Strong for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre Best revivalThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at National Theatre – Lyttelton Machinal by Sophie Treadwell at the Old VicOedipus by Robert Icke at Wyndham's theatre – WINNER! Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett at Theatre Royal Haymarket Best musical revival Fiddler on the Roof, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joseph Stein at Regent's Park Open Air theatre – WINNER! Hello, Dolly!, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Michael Stewart at the London Palladium Oliver!, book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, new material and revisions by Cameron Mackintosh at Gielgud theatre Starlight Express, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Richard Stilgoe at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre Best actor in a musical John Dagleish for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre – WINNER! Adam Dannheisser for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Myles Frost for MJ the Musical at Prince Edward theatre Simon Lipkin for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre Jamie Muscato for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Best actress in a musicalChumisa Dornford-May for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Lauren Drew for Titanique at Criterion theatre Clare Foster for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre Lara Pulver for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatreImelda Staunton for Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium – WINNER! Best new playThe Fear of 13 by Lindsey Ferrentino at Donmar WarehouseGiant by Mark Rosenblatt at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre – WINNER! Kyoto by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson at @sohoplace Shifters by Benedict Lombe at Duke of York's theatre The Years adapted by Eline Arbo, in an English version by Stephanie Bain at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Olivier awards 2025: complete list of nominations
Best new musicalThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button, music and lyrics by Darren Clark, book and lyrics by Jethro Compton at Ambassadors theatre MJ the Musical, book by Lynn Nottage at Prince Edward theatre Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, music, lyrics and book by Dave Malloy at Donmar Warehouse Why Am I So Single?, music, lyrics and book by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss at Garrick theatre Best set designJon Bausor for set design, Toby Olié and Daisy Beattie for puppetry design and Satoshi Kuriyama for projection design for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Frankie Bradshaw for set design for Ballet Shoes at National Theatre – Olivier Es Devlin for set design for Coriolanus at National Theatre – Olivier Tom Scutt for set design for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Best lighting designPaule Constable and Ben Jacobs for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre Howard Hudson for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Howard Hudson for Starlight Express at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre Aideen Malone for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Best new opera productionDuke Bluebeard's Castle by English National Opera at London Coliseum Festen by the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House L'Olimpiade by Irish National Opera and the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House The Tales of Hoffmann by the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House Outstanding achievement in operaAigul Akhmetshina for her performance in Carmen at Royal Opera House Allan Clayton for his performance in Festen at Royal Opera House Jung Young-doo for his direction of Lear at Barbican theatre Best family showBrainiac Live at Marylebone theatre Maddie Moate's Very Curious Christmas at Apollo theatre The Nutcracker at Polka theatre Rough Magic at Shakespeare's Globe – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Best new production in affiliate theatreAnimal Farm at Theatre Royal Stratford East by George Orwell, adapted by Tatty Hennessy Boys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner at Soho theatre English by Sanaz Toossi at Kiln theatre Now, I See by Lanre Malaolu at Theatre Royal Stratford East What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander at Marylebone theatre Best new dance productionAssembly Hall by Kidd Pivot, Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young at Sadler's Wells Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada – Pite/Kudelka/Portner by the National Ballet of Canada at Sadler's Wells Theatre of Dreams by Hofesh Shechter Company at Sadler's Wells An Untitled Love by A.I.M by Kyle Abraham at Sadler's Wells Outstanding achievement in danceSarah Chun for her performance in Three Short Ballets at Royal Opera House – Linbury theatre Tom Visser for his lighting design of Angels' Atlas as part of Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada – Pite/Kudelka/Portner at Sadler's Wells Eva Yerbabuena for her performance in Yerbagüena at Sadler's Wells Best actor in a supporting roleJorge Bosch for Kyoto at @sohoplace Tom Edden for Waiting for Godot at Theatre Royal Haymarket Elliot Levey for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Ben Whishaw for Bluets at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Best actress in a supporting roleSharon D Clarke for The Importance of Being Earnest at National Theatre – Lyttelton Romola Garai for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Romola Garai for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Gina McKee for The Years at Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Best theatre choreographerMatthew Bourne for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre Julia Cheng for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Hofesh Shechter for Oedipus at the Old Vic Christopher Wheeldon for MJ the Musical at Prince Edward theatre Best costume designHugh Durrant for Robin Hood at the London Palladium Sachiko Nakahara for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Tom Scutt for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Gabriella Slade for Starlight Express at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre Best sound designNick Lidster for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Christopher Shutt for Oedipus at the Old Vic Thijs van Vuure for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Koichi Yamamoto for Spirited Away at London Coliseum Outstanding musical contributionMark Aspinall for musical supervision and additional orchestrations for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Darren Clark for music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements and Mark Aspinall for musical direction, music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre Dave Malloy for orchestrations and Nicholas Skilbeck for musical supervision for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Asaf Zohar for compositions and Gavin Sutherland for dance arrangements and orchestration for Ballet Shoes at National Theatre – Olivier Best actress in a supporting role in a musicalLiv Andrusier for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Amy Di Bartolomeo for The Devil Wears Prada at Dominion theatre Beverley Klein for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Maimuna Memon for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Best actor in a supporting role in a musicalAndy Nyman for Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium Raphael Papo for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Layton Williams for Titanique at Criterion theatre Tom Xander for Mean Girls at Savoy theatre Best new entertainment or comedy playBallet Shoes adapted by Kendall Feaver at National Theatre – Olivier Inside No 9 Stage/Fright by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith at Wyndham's theatre Spirited Away adapted by John Caird and co-adapted by Maoko Imai at London Coliseum Titanique by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli at Criterion theatre Best directorEline Arbo for The Years at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre Jordan Fein for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Nicholas Hytner for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Robert Icke for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre Best actressHeather Agyepong for Shifters at Duke of York's theatre Lesley Manville for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre Rosie Sheehy for Machinal at the Old Vic Meera Syal for A Tupperware of Ashes at National Theatre – Dorfman Indira Varma for Oedipus at the Old Vic Best actorAdrien Brody for The Fear of 13 at Donmar Warehouse Billy Crudup for Harry Clarke at Ambassadors theatre Paapa Essiedu for Death of England: Delroy at @sohoplace John Lithgow for Giant at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Mark Strong for Oedipus at Wyndham's theatre Best revivalThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at National Theatre – Lyttelton Machinal by Sophie Treadwell at the Old Vic Oedipus by Robert Icke at Wyndham's theatre Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett at Theatre Royal Haymarket Best musical revivalFiddler on the Roof, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joseph Stein at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Hello, Dolly!, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Michael Stewart at the London Palladium Oliver!, book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, new material and revisions by Cameron Mackintosh at Gielgud theatre Starlight Express, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Richard Stilgoe at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre Best actor in a musicalJohn Dagleish for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre Adam Dannheisser for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Myles Frost for MJ the Musical at Prince Edward theatre Simon Lipkin for Oliver! at Gielgud theatre Jamie Muscato for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Best actress in a musicalChumisa Dornford-May for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse Lauren Drew for Titanique at Criterion theatre Clare Foster for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Ambassadors theatre Lara Pulver for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre Imelda Staunton for Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium Best new playThe Fear of 13 by Lindsey Ferrentino at Donmar Warehouse Giant by Mark Rosenblatt at Jerwood theatre Downstairs at Royal Court theatre Kyoto by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson at @sohoplace Shifters by Benedict Lombe at Duke of York's theatre The Years adapted by Eline Arbo, in an English version by Stephanie Bain at Almeida theatre and Harold Pinter theatre
