This week saw the nominations rain in for West End Theatres and SOLT member venues as the Olivier Awards revealed the shows the judges felt were outstanding this year.
I decided to take a look at what’s been on in London and what I think I’d like to see take the trophies this year.
Best Acting awards
Let’s start with Best Actor. I saw four of the five nominees and two stood out for me.
Bryan Cranston for All My Sons and Jack Holden for Kenrex gave very contrasting, but excellent performances.
Sean Hayes, nominated for Good Night, Oscar was good, but not outstanding in my view. David Shields in Punch added much-needed nuance.
Other nominees: Tom Hiddleston in Much Ado About Nothing.
My heart says Holden, but I suspect Hiddleston will get the nod.
Of the five nominees for Best Actress, I saw three.
Although Marianne Jean-Baptiste was excellent in All My Sons, and Cate Blanchett captivating in The Seagull, my vote would go to Rosie Sheehy, offering an outstanding performance the mother who internalises a world of pain in Guess How Much I Love You? at Royal Court.
Other nominees: Rosamund Pike for Inter Alia, Julia McDermott for Weather Girl (Soho).
My heart says Sheehy, but I think Baptiste will win.
Best Actor in a Musical is interesting, as it puts the two leads of The Producers, Marc Antolin and Andy Nyman, against each other. Of these, I feel Nyman has the edge.
I have only seen one other performance from this catagory: Jamie Parker in Into The Woods. An outlier, perhaps, but a well-deserved nomination.
Other nominees: James Hameed/Arti Shah for Paddington the Musical, Diego Andres Rodriguez for Evita.
My heart says Nyman, but I think Paddington will take this one.
Moving to Best Actress in a Musical, I have only seen one of the shows nominated.
Katie Brayben’s performance in Into the Woods was good, but I’m not sure it compares with a couple of the others in people’s minds.
Other nominees: Jane Krakowski in Here We Are, Jenna Russell in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Zegler in Evita, Danielle Fiamanya & Georgina Onuorah in Brigadoon.
I don’t have a special pick here, but I will be surprised in Zegler doesn’t win.
Best Show awards
There are four nominations for Best New Play and I saw three of them.
1536 (Almeida) was a powerful piece which is now heading into the West End. Punch came to the Wesf End via Nottingham Playhouse, and Kenrex via Southwark Playhouse.
Other nominees: Inter Alia (National), itself heading into the West End very soon.
My heart wants Kenrex to win, but I think Inter Alia has it.
For Best New Musical I have only seen one of the four contenders, Shucked at Regent’s Park.
The other nominees are Here We Are (National), The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Paddington the Musical.
Even though I haven’t seen it yet, Paddington surely has this one in the bag.
Next we move on to Best Revival. I’ve seen three of the four plays in the running.
All My Sons, The Seagull and Arcadia were all well worth seeing and made interesting choices in their staging and production.
Other nominee: Much Ado About Nothing.
My heart wants All My Sons to win. I think the Jamie Lloyd bandwagon may swing it for Shakespeare’s Much Ado.
In Best Musical Revival, I saw two of the four contenders, with Into The Woods and The Producers being equally impressive and enjoyable.
Other nominees: American Psycho (Almeida), Evita.
I’d like Into the Woods to win, but I think Evita will.
There’s an intriguing quartet up for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, of which I have seen three of the shows. The Comedy About Spies continued to showcase the quality of Mischief’s output. Oh, Mary! was anchored by a tremendous central performance (sadly not nominated in its own right), while Every Brilliant Thing has lost none of its power.
Other nominee: Paranormal Activity.
My heart goes with Every Brilliant Thing but I’m predicting a win for Oh, Mary!
Best Supporting Acting awards
On to Best Actor in a Supporting Role in which Zachary Hart is up against himself with nominations for both The Seagull and Stereophonic. I saw both, but for me he was slightly stronger in the latter. Paapa Essiedu for All My Sons and Giles Terera for Oh, Mary! were other performances I admired.
Also nominated is Hammed Animashsun for Dealer’s Choice (Donmar).
I’d like Essiedu to win, but Terera could sneak through to the winning post.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role has some very strong contenders. Lucy Karczewski was excellent in Stereophonic, and Julie Hesmondhalgh was powerful in Punch. I was also impressed by Isis Hainsworth in Arcadia (Old Vic) and am glad to see her nomination. Hayley Squires for All My Sons is the other nominee I saw, but she is a definite outlier in this company.
Other nominee: Sophie Thompson in When We Are Married (Donmar).
My heart wants this to go to Karczewski, but I think Hesmondhalgh might pip her to the post.
Turning to musicals, the Best Supporting Actor in a Musical has three performances I saw, two in the same show, Into the Woods, for which Jo Foster and Oliver Savile (both excellent) have been nominated. The other one I saw was Trevor Ashley in The Producers, a fun performance.
Other nominees: Cordin Bleu for The Great Gatsby and Tom Edden for Paddington the Musical.
I’d like Savile to win. I think it might be Bleu.
A very strong field for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical has two performers from Paddington the Musical going head to head (Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Amy Booth-Steel).
The shows I did see have the marvellous Kate Fleetwood nominated for Into the Woods and the magnificent Georgina Onuorah for Shucked. I’d find it very difficult to choose between the two.
Also nominated: Tracie Bennett for Here We Are (National).
My heart wants this to go to Fleetwood, as her work in this was the core of the show. I think more votes might go to one of the ladies from Paddington and I’m going to plump for Booth-Steel.
What/who would be your picks?
The Olivier Awards 2026 with Cunard take place on 12 Apr at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Nick Mohammed.