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"It feels like it’s about the show and Lucy’s play and I think I’m really the cherry on the cake rather the cake. But I’m thrilled with the show and it’s really nice to win for a show that’s still running."
"I think hosting something like this is one of those big grown up steps. You suddenly look at yourself and go, ok I must be grown up then, because in my head I'm still six years old"
"It's amazing because it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time really, it was just wonderful to do, it makes it all worth while"
"It's very exciting. I just never thought I would get one of these so it's great."
"It's so great that so many people have gotten involved and feel part of this, I think that’s what so great about the award itself."
"Absolutely gobsmacked, speechless, I'm a bit amazed. I haven’t really given myself time to think about it."
"Being the first production I was involved in, for me it’s a great confidence boost. I really can’t believe I managed to do it."
"This is the big one in our world. It’s the biggest and the best looking statue as well."
"It’s amazing. But it’s not just me, it’s everyone in the whole production, that is what awards are for and it’s brilliant."
"Obviously it is an extraordinary honour for me. But when you do a play you’re all together so it’s difficult to be separated out. It doesn’t make sense to me really."
"I just feel London has been so good to us. I’m just awestruck and overwhelmed. It's been a great experience here for the past 17 weeks"
"I think it’s a great signal by the jury to have chosen this production because it’s opening a discussion of how opera can be in the 21st century. I’m very surprised, but more than happy at this decision."
"I think all awards are important to celebrate our theatre and what’s going on in the theatre... It’s thrilling as well that the audience have their say."
"I was so enjoying the evening I’d forgot we were actually up to win! I’ve had three or four friends who have won the awards tonight so it’s wonderful"
"It was just such a joy to make, such brilliant people to have in the room. To know that people enjoyed it as much as we did is just fantastic"
"I really didn’t predict this. I had words with my family saying “I’m going to have a couple of glasses of wine before it’s announced” because I didn’t expect to have to get up the stairs!"
"To be a 28-year-old woman and doing this, winning this award, is amazing! London has treated me well"
"It was very affecting because the show passed so quickly and yet the show was so beautiful and I’m so proud of this acknowledgement of our achievement here. We always wanted to do this show in London"
The Laurence Olivier Awards are Britain's most prestigious stage honours. But who has won the most awards? Here is the answer to this question and many more...
And the biggest winners are:
SEVEN
- Judi Dench (actor)
- William Dudley (designer)
SIX
- Ian McKellen (actor)
- Alan Bennett (actor/writer)
- Richard Eyre (director)
- Stephen Sondheim (composer)
FIVE
- Matthew Bourne (choreographer/director)
- Declan Donnellan (director)
- Mark Henderson (lighting designer)
- Mark Thompson (designer)
FOUR
- Michael Bryant (actor)
- Michael Gambon (actor)
- Michael Frayn (writer)
- Tim Goodchild (designer)
- Clare Higgins (actor)
- Alex Jennings (actor)
- Sam Mendes (director)
- John Napier (designer)
- Trevor Nunn (director)
- Philip Quast (actor)
- Willy Russell (writer)
- Simon Russell Beale (actor)
- Frances de la Tour (actor)
- Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer)
The Venue
The venue most associated with the Awards is Grosvenor House Hotel, which has housed the after-show reception nine times and hosted the whole event on four further occasions. As well as at the Grosvenor, the presentations have been held at:
- Victoria Palace (2 times)
- Lyceum (3)
- National Theatre Olivier (2)
- Albery (now Noel Coward)
- Shaftesbury
- London Palladium
- Dominion (5)
- Royalty (2)
- Theatre Royal Drury Lane (2)
- Café Royal (5)
- Piccadilly (1)
- The Park Lane Hilton (3)
Most decorated productions
SIX
- Nicholas Nickleby (1980)
FIVE
- Guys and Dolls (1982)
- Sunday In The Park With George (2007)
FOUR
- All My Sons (2001)
- Billy Elliot - The Musical (2006)
- Hedda Gabler (2006)
- Oklahoma! (1999)
- Stanley (1997)
- She Loves Me (1995)
- Sweeney Todd (1994)
- Machinal (1994)
- An Inspector Calls (1993)
- Carousel (1993)
The early years
In the early years, the Awards were sometimes referred to as the 'Urnies' because the winners were presented with a specially commissioned blue Wedgwood urn. The Awards were established in 1976 as The Society of West End Theatre Awards, becoming the Laurence Olivier Awards in 1984. Consequently they are now often called the 'Larries'.
The first ever awards ceremony was held at the Café Royal on a Sunday evening in December 1976 and broadcast on the BBC as part of Nationwide. The first self-contained programme was broadcast on BBC1 in 1981, continuing until 1992 when it switched to BBC2. In 2004 the Beeb decided it no longer wanted to televise the awards. In 2007 edited television broadcasts from the event were hosted exclusively on this very website, enabling theatre fans to see inside the event for the first time in three years.
If you're hoping to pick up a couple of Olivier Awards yourself, you'd better have strong arms! Each solid bronze statuette weights 1.6kg. It depicts the young Olivier as Henry V at The Old Vic in 1937 and was commissioned by The Society of London Theatre from the sculptor Harry Franchetti.
Famous presentations
Famous names who have presented an Award range from Diana, Princess of Wales to Eddie Izzard, and from Kevin Spacey to Sir Tom Stoppard and in 2007, Laurence Olivier's son, Richard.
The award for the 'Most Bizarre Acceptance Speech' goes to a member of Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu who gargled her entire speech for the Best New Dance Production in 2001. She is run a close second by Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker, who accepted her award with what appeared to be a spontaneous, unintelligible, piece of performance art involving a pharaoh and a penguin.
Winners
Laurence Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright, won an Award before he did. She picked up the Best Actress Award for Filumena in 1978. Olivier was given a Special Award a year later.
Hit comedy The Play What I Wrote included a joke that Sir Ian McKellen was supposed to be the show's special guest star but he has got too drunk in the theatre bar to appear on stage. The performers were surprised one night when an apparently drunk Sir Ian really did amble onto the stage. He was actually there to present the 2002 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.
Ian Holm, an acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company actor in his youth,
spent almost 20 years away from the stage following an attack of
extreme stage fright. He returned to working in theatre in the
mid-1990s and won the Best Actor Award in 1998 for King Lear.
And the loser is ...
People who may feel inclined to stay at home even though they have been nominated for an award include David Suchet, who has been nominated no less than six times but has never won an Olivier Award.
Total number of awards given 670.
In 2005 and 2006 the Award Ceremony was hosted by the esteemed Richard Wilson, while in 2007 he co-presented with Sue Johnston. The previous seven ceremonies were hosted by Clive Anderson while previous hosts have included Angela Lansbury, Barry Norman, Peter Barkworth, Anthony Hopkins, Sue Lawley, Diana Rigg, Edward Fox, Tim Rice, Gary Wilmot, Jane Asher, Tom Conti, Denis Quilley and Angela Rippon.
Keeping it in the family
Winners who have kept it in the family include Sam Wanamaker, who won a special award for his work on the rebuilding of Shakespeare's Globe, and his daughter Zoe, who has won awards for her performances in Electra and Once in a Lifetime. Brother and sister Daniel and Anna Massey won acting awards in 1981 and 1982.