First published: 02 Mar 2010

Anthony Head is taking his hosting of this year’s Laurence Olivier Awards very seriously indeed. “I do see a lot of award ceremonies where it’s an opportunity for somebody to knock everything,” he said today. “And I don’t want to knock this, I feel we should celebrate. This year, theatre is really on its feet and we should shout it from the rooftops.”

The actor, currently starring in Six Degrees Of Separation at the Old Vic, was in good company today as the nominees for the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards gathered at the Haymarket Hotel to celebrate their achievements following a year in which London theatre has thrived more than ever, with both attendances and box office revenues setting new records.

“For whatever reason,” added Head, “a lot of things have come together, the fact that there are new plays, new playwrights… it’s not just a question of musicals keeping the West End alive, the West End is seriously alive and it’s something that we should all rejoice, and long may it last.”

Two high profile newcomers to the London stage were attracting attention at this year’s event. Keira Knightley said her nomination for her role in The Misanthrope was “like a dream come true. I never actually thought I would make it on the stage and then my debut, to then get a nomination, it’s extraordinary.”

The actress, best known for her screen roles in films including Pirates Of The Caribbean, Love Actually and The Duchess, said the nerves she felt when she first stepped onto the Comedy theatre stage had not dissipated. “It’s been terror from beginning to end,” she said, smiling. “It’s been such a learning curve. I’ve been so lucky with everyone involved with it and I’ve had a ball, so I’ve been very, very fortunate.”

Former Spice Girl Melanie C said she was also nervous about taking to the stage as Mrs Johnstone in long-running musical Blood Brothers, for which she received a Best Actress in a Musical nomination. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but of course having very little experience doing it I had to be quite brave in going for it.”

“One thing I’ve found really lovely about theatre is it really opens your audience out,” she added. “There’s certain members of my family or friends that it wouldn’t really be appropriate for them to come to a gig, like elderly relatives, and it’s so nice for them to be able to see you up there on the stage. And also I think it’s been quite an eye-opener for a lot of people who only know me as being part of the Spice Girls, so lots of theatregoers I think have actually been quite surprised that there’s more to me than that.”

The two newcomers were surrounded by established stage actors at today’s event, including British talents Ruth Wilson, Rachael Stirling, Samuel West, Kelly Price, and overseas visitors James Earl Jones and Tony Sheldon.

Stirling, nominated for one of several new plays recognised this year, said she was “thrilled and excited and desperately surprised”. Her role as a career-obsessed television producer in Michael Wynne’s comedy The Priory was “just an amazing part, thanks to Michael. It was an ensemble piece so I’m here but I sort of represent everybody else who was there on stage with me. I’m very aware of that. They were unbelievably generous and texted me immediately ‘well done’ and ‘congratulations’. I hope I’d be as generous of spirit if I were the other side of the fence.”

While new plays including Enron, Jerusalem, Red, Parlour Song and The Mountaintop have helped make the past year in Theatreland an impressive one, musicals, too, have made their mark. Hannah Waddingham and Kelly Price, stars of last year’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, were on hand to explain what their respective nominations meant to them. Waddingham, who spoke quietly due to a current bout of laryngitis, said she was pleased to receive her second Laurence Olivier Award nomination to date for a role so different from her first, in Monty Python’s Spamalot. “It’s actually more about that for me; nominated for something so different makes me feel like I’m doing something right. Spamalot was such an out there, in-yer-face comedy thing, and to be nominated for Desiree… Desiree is absolutely the role of my life so far.”

Price said she felt it “poignant” to be nominated in the year of A Little Night Music composer Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday. “It will be very nice to win, don’t get me wrong, but it’s about going there, it’s about the event, it’s about celebrating theatre and these fantastic productions and the actors and so it will be nice to get dressed up and enjoy the evening,” she added. 

Fresh young talents Charlotte Wakefield and Aneurin Barnard, the stars of shortlived but much acclaimed musical Spring Awakening, both expressed their honour at being nominated alongside more experienced actors. “Last year I was lucky enough, through Spring Awakening, [to be] presenting an award. So that was a privilege,” said Barnard. “I was joking with my agent, I went ‘maybe in 10 or 20 years time I can come up here and maybe be nominated’, so when he phoned me this year and went, ‘you’ll never guess what mate, you are nominated this year’, I thought he was taking the mick, but he wasn’t!”. Wakefield added: “Spring Awakening was my first professional theatre job and to be here in a room filled with such extraordinary actors is just beyond words, it really is.” The actress, who is currently appearing on television in Holby City, said it was a shame that the rock musical, which was recreated in London following a Broadway premiere, closed earlier than expected “but I think because we went out on such a high it was almost nice, if that makes sense. We went out with people queuing outside stage door, we had a massive crowd, people loved it and people miss it still.”

Spring Awakening contrasts with We Will Rock You, which was badly received by the critics but, after nearly eight years, is still going strong and now finds itself nominated in the brand new Audience Award against War Horse, Billy Elliot The Musical, Wicked and The Phantom Of The Opera. Queen’s Brian May, who co-wrote the musical with Ben Elton, commented: “It was worth staying around for wasn’t it? In a sense we’ve been the naughty child of the theatre and not very accepted in these circles so it’s nice to be around.”

“We put a lot of love into it and took a lot of risks I suppose. We were very aware that it wasn’t conventional musical theatre, although I personally wanted to know what rules I was breaking if you know what I’m saying. It was really a labour of love and when we got pasted to the wall in the papers the day after opening night, it was very sad, a very hard thing to get over. But the funny thing is I think they did us a favour because we gathered together and put our heads together, working on the image of the show outside and working on the actual show inside and it made us stronger and we’re still here.”

It is not too late to cast your vote for one of the five nominated long-running shows. Vote now and return to Official London Theatre on 21 March at 17:30 for live coverage of the Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony, including tweeting, reporting, photos and, for the first time ever, live video streaming of the whole ceremony.

Join us, the nominees and their guests for a night of glamour, celebration and, perhaps for host Anthony Head, a few nerves: “It’s going to be scary as hell,” he said. 

CB