Stage success: Rachel Weisz is best actress.
Rachel Weisz took the best actress honours for A Streetcar Named Desire at the 34th Lawrence Olivier Awards in London last night. And Mark Rylance won best actor for his role in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, big stars Jude Law, Keira Knightley, Gillian Anderson, James McAvoy, Rowan Atkinson, Mackenzie Crook, James Earl Jones and Imelda Staunton had all to stay seated and watch, disappointed.
But the biggest surprise of the glitzy evening came when 28-year-old US playwright Katori Hall won the best new play for The Mountaintop.
Her controversial play is about the final hours of US civil rights activist Martin Luther King.
Hall is the first black woman to win the prize and only the fourth female and by her own admission “didn’t have a Wikipedia entry before this”.
She was astonished to be picking up the prize and told The Times: “I’m 28 years old. I didn’t even know who Laurence Olivier was. I was [thinking], ‘Who, Olivier?’”
The Mountaintop, which shows King swearing and cheating on his wife, got its first airing in a room above a pub.
She added: “It’s ironic that I had to come to London to prove my worth.”
Full list of winners:
Best actress - Rachel Weisz (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Best actor - Mark Rylance (Jerusalem)
Best actress in a supporting role - Ruth Wilson (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Best actor in a supporting role - Eddie Redmayne (Red)
Best new play - The Mountaintop (by Katori Hall)
Best new comedy - The Priory (by Michael Wynne)
Best musical revival - Hello Dolly!
Best new musical - Spring Awakening
Best entertainment - Morecambe
Best actress (musical or entertainment) - Samantha Spiro (Hello Dolly!)
Best actor (musical or entertainment) - Aneurin Barnard (Spring Awakening)
Best supporting performance (musical or entertainment) - Iwan Rheon (Spring Awakening)
Best director - Rupert Goold (Enron)
Best revival - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (directed by Debbie Allen)
Best theatre choreographer - Stephen Mear (Hello Dolly!)
Best lighting design - Burnt By The Sun (Mark Henderson)
Best set design - Jerusalem (designed by Ultz)
Best costume design - Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner)
Best set design - Spring Awakening (Brian Ronan)
Audience award - Wicked
Best new opera - Tristan und Isolde (Royal Opera)
Outstanding achievement (opera) - Nina Stemme (Tristan und Isolde)
Best new dance - Goldberg: The Brandstrup Rojo Project
Outstanding achievement (dance) - Rambert Dance Company
Outstanding achievement (affiliate theatre) - The Royal Court for Cock
Outstanding achievement award - Michael Codron
SOLT Special Award - Dame Maggie Smith
