At a glittering ceremony at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Sunday night, The Society of London Theatres announced the winners of this year’s Laurence Olivier Awards, highlighting the best of the shows produced in the West End over the last year.
In the lighting category, Neil Austin collected the prize for his design for The White Guard at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton; the same production also collected the Best Set Design award for Bunny Christie and Best Director award for Howard Davies. This was Neil’s fourth Olivier nomination, and marks the continuation of a remarkable winning streak which has also seen him pick up the Tony and Drama Desk Awards in New York for his design for Red, and the 2010 Redden Award for Excellence in Lighting Design. He is currently designing Betty Blue Eyes at London’s Novello Theatre, and White Light is delighted to be working with him on that show. Neil’s fellow nominees were Mark Henderson for After The Dance, Hugh Vanstone for Deathtrap, and Paule Constable for Love Never Dies.
The other design awards went to Adam Cork, winner of the Best Sound Design category for King Lear at the Donmar ahead of Gareth Owen for End Of The Rainbow, Nick Manning for Ghost Stories and Craig Vear for The Railway Children, and to Hildegard Bechtler, winner of the Best Costume Design category for After The Dance at the National, ahead of Lez Brotherston for Design For Living, Mark Thompson for London Assurance and Bob Crowley for Love Never Dies. Crowley was also nominated for Best Set Design for his work on that show, alongside Brotherston, again for Design For Living, and Miriam Buether for Earthquakes In London.
The rest of the awards were distributed across a wide range of productions, including The Railway Children at Waterloo Station, named Best Entertainment, We Will Rock You the BBC Radio 2 Olivier Audience Award Winner, Into The Woods the Best Musical Revival, Legally Blonde the Best New Musical and Clybourne Park the Best New Play.
A full list of this year’s winners and nominees, as well as highlights from the show itself, can be found at www.olivierawards.com.
Leave a Reply