Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of Sunset Boulevard swept the table at the Oliviers on Sunday night, winning a joint-record number of awards for a musical.
The West End show, which features music by Lord Lloyd Webber, 76, has been awarded seven Olivier Awards, putting it on par with previous winners Hamilton, Matilda and Cabaret.
Lead singer and former X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger was named best actress in a musical.
Her performance marked her first return to the West End since her debut in Lord Lloyd Webber’s Cats in 2015, for which she received an Olivier nomination.
Scherzinger stars as silent movie goddess Norma Desmond, who longs to return while hiding out in a Los Angeles mansion, in the revival of a musical first staged in 1993 and inspired by the 1950 Billy Wilder film.
The musical won awards including best revival of a musical for Scherzinger’s co-star Tom Francis, best actor in a musical, and best director for Jamie Lloyd, who reimagined the show.
Lord Lloyd Webber has been a force on the West End for decades as the composer behind such hits as The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Hollywood and TV stars who triumphed at the annual theater excellence awards include Succession star Sarah Snook, who won best actress for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was “a dream come true,” she said.
While Snook portrayed 26 characters in the stage adaptation, her performance was followed by a camera crew projected on screens.
She beat out competition from actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker, who received her first Olivier nomination for the movie Plaza Suite, in which she starred with husband Matthew Broderick.
Mark Gatiss won best actor at the National Theater for Sam Mendes’ The Motive and The Cue. Other nominees for the award included stars Andrew Scott, James Norton and David Tennant.
British playwright James Graham’s production Dear England, about England football manager Gareth Southgate and starring Joseph Fiennes, won the Londoner award for best new play.
It also earned Will Close the award for best actor in a supporting role for his performance as Harry Kane.
Speaking to The Telegraph after accepting the Londoner award for best new play, he said: “I think that’s the unifying thing we can all agree on is that if you don’t get people on lower incomes into the theatre, then what are we doing this for?”
He suggested the theater industry was “sensitive” about class.
He said: “[Class] It is difficult to see and define. So I think we are nervous about that… Go to the Baftas and they have correctly identified the categories that they need to cover in terms of representation, but class is not one of them because we are very sensitive about that.”
Accepting the award, Graham, 41, paid tribute to drama teachers at his comprehensive school in Nottingham, saying he “decided that working-class children should be doing plays”.
Graham later said that he lost his working-class accent at university because he was “too nervous” about it, but now regrets it. He “hopefully” a play about football could help open the theater to a more diverse audience, he said.
He added: “I stand here as a white man and they are underrepresented in British theatre. But coming from the Red Wall and coming from a working-class family, I feel a responsibility to keep beating the drum because it’s hard to see.”
Actor Haydn Gwynne, who died last year after being diagnosed with cancer, received a posthumous award. She was best known for her roles in the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey and as Queen Consort Camilla in the royal satire The Windsors.
The awards ceremony was first held in 1976, when it was known as the Society of West End Theater Awards. It is managed by the Society of London Theater (Solt), a not-for-profit membership organization for London theater producers, managers, owners and operators.
Ted Lasso, who hosted this year’s ceremony, and musical theater star Hannah Waddingham opened the awards with a performance of Anything Goes from the musical of the same name.
Co-hosts included actor Dominic West, who recently complained that West End audiences included “too many tourists” and people who weren’t in London “because they wanted to be there”.
Presenters included actress and model Cara Delevingne, former Vogue editor Edward Enninful and comedian Sir Lenny Henry.
Solt President Eleanor Lloyd said: “The Olivier Awards have once again showcased the best of London theater and the great talent of this incredible industry. Congratulations to all winners and nominees for your tremendous and valuable contributions.”