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The biggest shocks from the OLIVIER nominations | A recap of the 2025 Olivier Award nominations
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Mickey Jo
Oh, my God. Hey. It is a huge day for the London theatre industry because the 2025 Olivier Awards nominations have just been announced. If you don't know, the Olivier Awards are the British answer to the Tony Awards. They celebrate a year of excellence in the London theatre industry. We're talking about West End Theatre, but sort of slightly beyond the commercial West End as well, because eligibility depends on Society of London Theatre membership, including the Donmar Warehouse, including the Almeida Theatre, including the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Young Vic, a handful of other theatres that we wouldn't consider to be Central West End. It's a little different to the Tony Awards that way. And if I haven't already bored you away by that very technical introduction, hello to you. Oh, my God. Hey. My name is Mickey Jo. I am obsessed with all things theatre, if you couldn't already tell. I am a professional theatre critic here on social media. You may be watching this on my theatre themed YouTube channel. You may be listening to me on podcast platforms. Hello to you all. For the podcast listeners, I'm wearing a very lovely embroidered Oliver jumper that you can get from the current West End revival at the Gielgud Theatre, but you can also buy it online. And now, in addition to being a critic, I am also a content creator, obviously, and a theatre pundit, and it is in that capacity today that we are going to be talking about my reaction to the 2025 Olivier Award nominations. Earlier today, as they were being announced, I was reacting live here on YouTube with my stagey fiance, Erin James. We were both shook multiple times over and that should still be accessible on YouTube. If you want to go back and watch our reactions in real time, you can also go and contrast it with our predictions of what the nominations were going to be. Spoiler alert. We got some of them correct. I others were wildly wrong. Just, just so completely off. Now, any announcement of awards nominations always comes with some surprises. There will always be some shocks, there will always be some snubs. But for the Olivier Awards in particular, I want to highlight that there are two main reasons why they are always particularly surprising. One is that there's no real forerunner to the Olivier Awards that is comparable for the Oscars, you have the likes of the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the Screen Actors Guild Awards for theatre in the US prior to the Tony Awards, you have the Drama Desk Awards, you have Outer Critics Circle Awards. For the Olivier Awards, they are preceded only by the Stage Awards, the Stage Debut Awards and the Watson Stage Awards, which do very different things. Because the Stage Debut Awards focus on performers debuting into the industry, and the Watson Stage Awards are not only publicly voted, which makes their nominations and their winners often wildly different to those selected by the Olivier Awards panel, but also they actually focus on a slightly different time frame in terms of the eligibility window. And that is one of the reasons why the Oliviers are always a little bit shocking. The other is, unlike the Tony Awards, they do not make rolling announcements about eligibility throughout the year. So if there is an actor who has been submitted by the show, by the producers as a leading actor, and they've decided, no, actually, that's a supporting performance, these announcements get made periodically throughout the year on Broadway. We never know about that in the West End until the announcements come out. Similarly, we don't necessarily know if a show is going to be eligible, if something that's come back is considered a revival or not, if something that played a prior West End run has already been considered in that capacity. Like Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, which wasn't even eligible this year. A lot of people were expecting to see it nominated, but that was never going to happen. Sadly, the opposite to this being Guys and Dolls inclusion last year, which we'd spent all year hearing, wasn't going to be seen, wasn't eligible, and then suddenly, at the last minute, it was. All of which is to say, the Olivier Awards will always keep me on my toes. And today we're going to be counting down the biggest surprises of this afternoon's nominations, starting with the thing that made me the most shook. Jamie Moscato being nominated for his performance as Anatole in Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at the Donmar Warehouse, but being nominated in the category of Best Leading Actor in a Musical rather than supporting. Now, this is a nomination I had entirely expected to see, but I didn't think it was going to be in this category. I thought if Natasha Pierre and the great combo of 1812 had a nomination in this category, it would be for the show's undeniable leading actor, Declan Bennett. Now, it's not always that binary. That isn't to say that if there's one leading actor, there can't be more than one leading actor. Look at a show like Hamilton. But that doesn't take away from the fact I really think Anatol is a supporting character. He has a decent amount of stage time, he is involved in the narrative, he sings more than one song. But none of these make a character leading, and the line between leading and supporting can be a very blurry one. And people disagree about this, and different awarding bodies disagree about this. Sharon D. Clark's performance in the recent revival of the play Death of a Salesman was considered to be leading here in the West End, where she won the Olivier and was considered to be supporting over on Broadway, where she did not. Now, there are similar. Similar form for this very show with the Tonys versus the Oliviers, because Lucas Steele, who played the role on Broadway, was considered a featured actor. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical. And yet Anatol has somehow become leading as far as the Oliviers are concerned. I find it shocking, and I don't think it's necessarily the reason explicitly why Declan Bennett didn't get a nomination in this category. But if we do look at the category for Best Supporting Actor in a musical, something interesting happened here as well. Andy Nyman was nominated in support, and I thought for sure, even though he's another one who really lives on the cusp, and you can make an argument either way that he was going to get pushed into leading, I think he's closer to leading than Jamie Moscato is in Natasha Pierre. And I thought Harry Heppel would then get a supporting nomination for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in hello, Dolly, but I think he really was kept out of that category because Andy Nyman ended up there. And category fraud, to use its admittedly very malicious title, is not something new. We saw a lot of this at the Academy Awards this year, I think, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande being pushed into two separate categories, with Zoe Saldana and Carlos, Sofia Gascoigne being pushed into two separate categories just to increase the breadth of nomination possibilities. But more often than not, that is the way that it happens. Legitimate leading characters end up moving down to supporting because they have a better shot. I think if Jamie Moscato was in supporting, he'd be the frontrunner. As it stands, he doesn't have nearly as much material as John Daglish in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as Simon Lipkin, even, who is also on that cusp of leading supporting as Fagan, but has always sort of ended up leading because of the way that the narrative is shaped, I think. And so Jamie, I think. I mean, it's a win for him to get his first nomination and to now be an Olivier Award nominee, and he's already now into a leading role. He's going to be Gatsby and the Great Gatsby. He might get nominated again next year for that performance. But as it stands, I Don't think he stands as good a chance of winning for this role because of the category he's ended up in. Next up, one of the next big surprises of the afternoon. 13 nominations for Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Don't get me wrong, I loved this production. I went to see this towards the end of its run late in the summer. I had a delightful evening. I thought it was gorgeous, I thought it was stirring, I thought it was atmospheric, I thought it was really brilliant creative work. And it sold out its run. I believe it's the most successful production in the history of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. It's the longest run they've ever sustained there. It was very warm when they opened, it was very cold when they closed. They had to modify the costumes. So, you know, Tom Scott deserves that costume design nomination. A deceptive amount of innovation went into making that show work at this beautiful outdoor venue. But I did not anticipate it getting 13 nominations. I did not think that that was going to be in the top five of most nominated shows today. I'm thrilled, I'm very happy for them. I think it's an indication of recognition of really beautiful work and really paying attention to that because it's not this huge commercial entity, it was not star led and yet it is now jointly the most nominated production in the history of the Olivier Awards, right up there with Hamilton, which also got 13 nominations. It's also very helpful for the production, which is set to transfer to the Barbican later this year and it's going to go on a UK tour thereafter. So already on that poster, 13 Olivier Award nominations, the most nominated production in the history of the Olivier Awards. That's got to count for something when you're trying to sell tickets. And admittedly, there's already considerable demand for the production because, like I said, sold out at Regent's park and I mean really sold out. It was actively hard to get a ticket to that show. And there are some very interesting things. If we look at some of their individual nominations, they dominated in a lot of design categories. They were nominated in all four different acting categories with five nominations overall, including a handful of supporting roles that we don't normally see nominations for. In various productions of Fiddler on the Roof, it hasn't been that many years since it was last seen in London. There have been a couple of New York productions recently. We don't often see nominations for any of Tevye's Daughters, for Yenta, for the Fiddler for crying out loud. Thrilled, delighted for all of those actors. Personally, very happy, because the recognition of the rising star that is Liv Andrewsier has been too long overlooked. And I'm very excited to go and see the production again at the Barbican. But don't get me wrong, I am shocked. They've also done a particularly interesting thing, which is they have broken into the very challenging Best Director category. Now here at the Olivier Awards, Best Director includes plays and musicals and usually only has four or five nominees. So very hard in the land of prestigious and meaningful and weighty plays for any musicals to break into that category. And Jordan Fine has been nominated alongside all of the play directors for directing Fiddler on the Roof. Jordan Fine, who is set to direct into the woods later this year at the Bridge. This is all good news for me personally, and I'm very excited. And, you know, go, Fiddler. Next up, another surprise, but a good surprise, which is two of the performers we saw in the Best leading actor in a play category, a category which I think is the most competitive category this year. There are huge heavyweights here. And as soon as Giant opened at the Royal Court, people were saying, oh, John Lithgow is going to win the Olivier Award. Don't even bother. No one else even try. Closed your shows. Don't open anything. Postpone. There is no hope in snatching the Olivier Award from his hands, from his performance as Roald Dahl, which is menacing and haunting and real. But at the same time, Adrien Brody was doing the fear of 13 at the Donmar Warehouse. And then people started saying, oh, well, no, Adrien Brody's gonna win it. And with his win at the Academy Awards over the weekend, he could become one of presumably very few actors to win an Olivier and an Oscar in the same year. In just over a month, in fact. And based on his Oscars speech, I don't know if we can afford for him to win at the Olivier Awards because I would eventually like to go home. I assume everyone else would as well. A little while afterwards, Mark Strong opened opposite Leslie Manville in Robert Icke's Oedipus. We're going to talk about that. Bear with me. Give me just a moment. And none of the nominations for those three actors are any kind of a surprise. What was surprising to me is we saw recognition for performances given earlier in the year and given alongside other shows, and I worried these actors would get forgotten, but they weren't. I'm talking about Billy Crudup in Harry Clark, which opened way, way back. Like that show was getting ready for its press night this time last year. A very disadvantageous time to open in terms of awards recognition and getting remembered, as well as Papa Estyedoux, who performed in Death of England. Delroy, this is a three part play, three different productions, and he starred in one of them, giving a solo performance, but a alongside two other pieces of programming. So for him to be singled out is a real indication of how great his performance was. Both of them were terrific, fantastic. Could win the Olivier any given year, I think, and people say this often, I don't know how often it's really true. Any of these five actors could win the Olivier and it would be completely legitimate. But the real testament to the strength of this category is the fact that so could Stephen Kunkan, who wasn't even nominated, who is the star of Kyoto. In fact, he is the real challenging anti hero Heart of Kyoto, who is guiding us through this turbulent play. I'd even been beginning to think that maybe he could push past Lithgow and Brody and win the thing, but he's not even nominated. And Kyoto is one of the most recent openings. So, you know, that kind of dismantles my entire theory about what is an advantageous and a disadvantageous time to open in terms of awards recognition. Kyoto only has one acting nomination for Jorge Bosch in a Supporting actor in a play, which I think is a significantly less challenging category this year. And when I say challenging, that's really defined by where the roles are. I think, for what it's worth, there have been great roles for leading actors in plays this year and supporting actresses in plays. And if that's a scathing indictment on the industry, it also isn't really a surprise. Now, speaking about supporting actresses in plays, this brings us to our next surprise. Romola Garai vs Romola Garai in Best Supporting Actress in a play. In fact, there are four nominations in this category. It also includes Sharon D. Clark in the Importance of Being earnest and Gina McKee, one of Romola's co stars in the Years, a play made up of five actresses playing the same character over different stages of her lifetime. But Romola does constitute half of the category's nominees for her performances in the Years, as well as in Giant. She was fantastic in Giant. She was fantastic in both, actually. But when I went to go and see the Years, I was reminded how great she was in Giant. It's a slightly weightier part and so I think this should be. I mean, it's already been a fantastic year for her, but I think it should be A good day for her in early April when she attends the Oliviers. The surprise is that the cast members from the years romola and Gina McKee were nominated individually. Because for a role like this, a handful of times recently we have seen actors nominated as a group. When the Lehman Trilogy was on stage with three actors playing a host of different intertwined characters over different generations, but not playing the same role. They were nominated as a trio in Best Leading Actor in a Play. When there was a very tight ensemble cast for the play Our Ladies of Perpetual Sucker, they were nominated as a group in Best Supporting Actress in a Play. When the musical Six first opened in the West End, the six queens were nominated jointly in Best Supporting Actress in a musical. Interestingly enough, what do you notice here? Even though every time this is the entire cast, the men were nominated in leading and the women were nominated in supporting. Echoing what I just said in the previous, is that not a little bit of an indictment? Yes, six is very short, and yes, the Lehman Trilogy is very long. So technically they do more. But no one is getting nominated by the minute. There are not Olivier Awards nominators and voters going to these plays with stopwatches to count how many seconds these people are speaking for. I find that to be a double standard, and I'm not happy about it. What I am happy about is that that's not what happened to the years. I don't think it's the best way to nominate performances. When we had the puppeteers for the Tiger from the Life of PI getting nominated in Best Supporting Actor in a play, I was happy that there was recognition for the important work they're doing on stage. It is very much still part of storytelling, and it's very much still acting. But that was becoming a little bit ridiculous. It was also blurring the lines in terms of these gendered acting categories, which is something I would love, because I want to see that dismantled. We don't need a gender separation in acting. If you want to have a separation, if you want to say to me, mickey, Jo, I still want to see as many awards given out, so do I separate it by new work versus revivals? Because the work you do as an actor, bringing something new to the stage versus reviving something older is very, very different. But we're getting away from the point a little bit here. The point is the company of the years. These five actresses were not nominated as a group. They were nominated separately, or rather two out of five of them were. Now, I said I would come back to the Oedipus versus Oedipus of it all. And let's do it. I am still planning on making a video where I compare and contrast these two wildly different productions of Oedipus. They are completely different pieces of theatre. One of them was a modern interpretation of the story produced at the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End in a new blistering version by Robert Icke. The other is a more classic interpretation that's also a dance fusion currently playing over at the Old Vic. Both of them were star led and there are in fact very few categories in which they are directly competing. One of them got four nominations, the Ike version. The Old Vic version got three nominations. So it doesn't seem like that one did so much better. But if we look at it, then it sort of did because. And not to be this person, but those nominations were in slightly bigger categories. The Ike version was nominated for best Play Revival. Even though it's an entirely new adaptation. I find that dubious because I think this play actually had more new material than the likes of War Horse or the Curious Instance of the Dog in the Nighttime, which have been considered new plays historically. It was also nominated for best Director for Robert Icke and both of its leading stars, Mark Strong and Leslie Manville. The. The other production of Oedipus, the one at the Old Vic, was nominated for some of its creative elements, for its choreography, for its sound design, I believe, and for one of its stars, Indira Varma. And this was the shock, this was the part that was shocking. I knew the Ike version was going to get nominations. That was huge. Everybody loved it. Everybody and their mother. Wink. The Old Vic one I didn't think was going to get any nominations whatsoever. And I understand all of them and I don't begrudge any of them. I was just surprised, particularly surprised to see Indira Varma nominated now. I think she's a terrific actress and I think she's foregone nominations in the past that she ought to have had. And that's always the funny thing about awards. You know, you struggle to break into a category on a more competitive year or you get a nomination in a less competitive year. And I think especially in this category, it's not a particularly competitive year. But this is interesting because this is the one category where the two productions are going head to head. Both Lesley Manville and indiravama are nominated for their performances as Jocasta in a different production of Oedipus. It will be very interesting to see what happens here. My anticipation is that Lesley Manville will come out the victor and will win this entire category and earn her second Olivier Award. But we must all wait to find out. Now, we've spent a lot of time in plays. Let's hop back over to the world of musicals, where one of the biggest surprises for a lot of people, I think, was that why Am I so Single? Was nominated for Best New Musical. And if you'd asked me this a year ago, I wouldn't have been surprised at all, because we were all very excited for this show to come to the West End. And there was a lot of enthusiasm around this being the next show written by the creators of Six, which has gone from this plucky little fringe show to this legitimate international phenomenon. Why Am I so Single? However, when it finally arrived in the West End, as I've talked about with various reviews and videos here, didn't really have the same reaction. It did not enjoy the same success. The reviews, I'd say, were mixed to positive. I myself, really enjoyed the production, really enjoyed the material. I think there's a lot that's really great about it. I think it is simultaneously pushing the medium of musical theatre forwards in exciting new ways, but also had its own shortcomings, was a little overproduced. This was not the best iteration of what this show could have been. However, I was still hopeful it would be recognized in the Best New Musical category because I think it's a really important piece of writing. And interestingly, Best New Musical here is a little different to Best New Musical at the Tonys because we don't have categories to represent Best Score and Best Book of a Musical for the Writing. That is what Best New Musical is for. This award is not going to the producers, it is going to the writers. Explicitly and in response to an open letter asking for a Best Score category, which was refused. The Olivier Awards have assured signatories of that, that voters and nominators will be reminded that this is to be decided based on the merits of the material. So when we talk about Best New Musical being given out by the quality of the score and the book and not the other design elements and the direction, the choreography, which are all, you know, decided separately in their own categories, then I think, why Am I so Single? Really does deserve to be there. Say what you will about the show, that score is one of the strongest that we have had in the last year. I think the surprise comes from, you know, obviously its early closure, the fact that it didn't have that same Six success. But I am very happy to see it nominated. If Only for that one category. If they were only going to get one nomination, that's a good one to get. Now, like I said, I am going to talk about snubs. But one of the biggest surprises of the afternoon was seeing no nominations whatsoever for a handful of productions. The likes of Kathy and Stella, Solve a Murder, Fangirls at the Lyric Hammersmith, the revival of Kiss Me Kate, getting nothing that surprised me. Neither of Jamie Lloyd's Shakespearean productions, either the Tempest or Romeo and Juliet, were we really surprised. Elektra, Daniel Fisher's new production, again, were we surprised it didn't get a nomination? Slave Play, though, which until recently was the most Tony Award nominated play of all time, not getting any Olivier Award nominations kind of feels like an indictment. I think we really did Slave Play Dirty when it came over here. I don't think it was received in good faith. From the initial controversy to the critical response. I don't think it was entirely well understood. I also think culturally it was a little bit at odds with a British sensibility, but certainly a handful of its performances were really extraordinary and deserved recognition. Absolutely deserved recognition. An unsurprising omission which I mentioned in the introduction to this video, was Two Strangers Carry a cake across New York. A lot of people have been surprised that that was not nominated and that Sam Tutty and Dujon Des Gift were not nominated for their performances. The reason, frustratingly, is eligibility, because it was technically eligible during its pre West End run at the Kiln. Only there wasn't the same kind of buzz then. No one was, you know, pushing the marketing and campaigning on its behalf, which is sadly a component of any awards race. The campaign matters. And so by the time that it arrived in the West End and started capturing everyone's attention and winning everyone's hearts, devastatingly, it wasn't eligible. And it's really a shame for the writers who are still early career musical theatre writers who deserve to have recognition for their beautiful work. And I think what it means is just like if Guys and Dolls hadn't ended up being eligible last year, the Oliviers 2025 aren't really indicative of the year that we've had, because Two Strangers was a big part of that and it's not up there. Not because it wasn't good enough, but because of an annoying technicality. A similar thing happened with Hadestown, which wasn't recognized during its first eligible run at the National Theatre, so then was subsequently considered a revival when it came back to the Lyric, even in a modified production. But it meant that its Creative elements weren't eligible. Before I move on, Player Kings was another completely surprising snub and a handful of other productions which weren't nominated whatsoever. If you can think of any more, feel free to comment them in the comments section down below. Now, alongside these entirely snub productions, there were a couple of big commercial musicals that only received one nomination each of them for their supporting performances. I am talking about Amy dibatta lemayo, the wonderful Amy du Bartolomeo who was nominated for her brilliant performance as Emily in the Devil Wears Prada, and the hilarious and legitimately show stopping Tom Zander who was nominated for his performance in Mean Girls. And I'm not surprised at either of those nominations. In fact, I am delighted by both of them. I am surprised that they are flying the flags for those shows and that they represent their only nominations. You know, MJ getting a few more with Miles Frost's Tony Award winning performance because of its brilliant choreography. That doesn't entirely surprise me. But I for sure thought we were going to see Mean Girls and the Devil Wears Prada getting at least a couple entering into a few more categories. And a world in which they have fewer nominations than Titanique, which was nominated for two of its performances, Leading lady Lauren Drew, as well as scene stealer Leighton Williams, and the show itself being nominated in the always confusing category, best entertainment or comedy play. That really was a shock. Are we seeing a little bit of pushback against these very commercial musicals? There have been years before where the Oliviers have lapped these up, things like Legally Blonde. And I'm not here to say that Mean Girls or Devil Wears Prada are as high quality as Legally Blonde. I don't think that they are, but is that something to do with it? Is that part of the reluctance to nominate them in more categories? Is there a little bit of pushback against the Broadway transfer to the West End? So many of these nominations this afternoon were for shows which started here in the uk, something like Slave Play, which came from Broadway with an extraordinary amount of prestige and accolades behind it, not getting any nominations. It does feel like the Oliviers were maybe a little bit indifferent to something that Broadway had already decided was great and almost told them what to do with it. Something arriving with a reputation like that I think may have been a little to its own detriment. Finally then, I was genuinely very surprised to see a handful of this year's biggest musical revivals, some of the biggest shows of the year, not getting as many nominations as I had anticipated. And they each still managed A small handful. And they were each nominated in the category of best revival of a musical, alongside the juggernaut that is Fiddler on the Roof. I'm talking about hello, Dolly at the London Palladium. I am talking about Starlight Express at the Troubadour Theatre, Wembley Park. And I am talking about. What's the other one? Oh, my gosh, it's been a very long day, everybody. Oliver. It's the one I'm wearing on my jumper. Oh, no. I am talking about the return of Oliver in a new production produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, of course, at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End. These are shows which have dominated conversation this year, which have sold well. They have been big critical and commercial hits. But I was on here just a few days ago talking to you all about how Starlight and Oliver and Dolly as well were really gonna dominate the nominations. And that is not what we saw today. Shanae Holmes not getting one for Nancy. That really surprised me. Sir Matthew Bourne not getting a nomination for his direction of Oliver, which I think exceeds the quality of his choreography, which was nominated. That surprised me, as did the lack of, I believe. Was it lighting design for Starlight Express or sound design, perhaps for Starlight Express? No, I think Starlight got lighting but didn't get sound. Didn't get a nomination for Jeevan Brach, who has been winning awards all season at the Stage Debut Awards, at the what's On Stage Awards. He is extraordinarily charismatic in that show and he does the thing on eight wheels. I have always thought that has to count for something. And hello, Dolly, getting neither direction nor choreography, not getting design nominations, and not getting more performance nominations. I was shook. I've gone on record to say I was not the biggest fan of that production of hello, Dolly. I still thought that it was brilliant work. It was hugely entertaining. It was still obviously of great quality. I thought it was just pitched a little wrong tonally. But you can go and check out my hello, Dolly review to find out what I mean by that. In the meantime, those have been my immediate thoughts about the biggest surprises from today's Olivier Award nominations. As always, I want to know what you thought. What were you the most shook by? The most surprised by that I have left off this list. Simply put, what was your reaction to the Olivier Award nominations? Thank you for listening to my thoughts. I hope that you enjoyed. Stay tuned for much more Olivier's coverage. Between now and the ceremony, which is taking place place in early April, I will be sharing my predictions, but prior to the video coming here, you will also be able to read them online at londontheatre.co.uk. i have no idea when that's going to be published, but I anticipate it being very soon. Thank you so much for listening. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.