LONDON — Among the London stage productions recognized with 2012 Olivier Awards were Matilda The Musical, which honored Rob Howell for best set design, and Frankenstein, whose lighting designer, Bruno Poet, took top honors. The event was held April 15 at the Royal Opera House.
Along with Best Set Design, Matilda The Musical won a bevy of honors including Best New Musical, Best Director (Matthew Warchus), Best Theatre Choreographer (Peter Darling), Best Actor In A Musical (Bertie Carvel), Best Actress In A Musical (presented to the four children who alternate in the show’s title role) and Best Sound Design (Simon Baker).
White Light supplied the lighting equipment to the ceremony and many of the nominated shows, and also sponsored the Lighting Design Award. The company noted that Poet’s work on Frankenstein at the National’s Olivier Theatre included a dramatic wedge-shaped light bulb ceiling as a central part of his design. It was comprised of 3,100 assorted light bulbs driven from just over 1,000 dimmers, allowing for the creation of waves of light over the heads of the audience. White Light was involved in the creation of this effect, working with the designer and the staff.
In the other design categories, Peter McKintosh won the Best Costume Design award for Crazy For You at Regent’s Park – which was also named Best Musical Revival.
Other performers collecting awards included Sheridan Smith, Best Performance In A Supporting Role for Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Nigel Harman was awarded Best Performance In A Supporting Role In A Musical for his part in Shrek, and Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller shared the Best Actor award, having shared the title role in Frankenstein. Ruth Wilson was named Best Actress for her performance in Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse, the production also named Best Revival. The Best New Play award was presented to Collaborators at the Cottesloe Theatre.
Other awards were presented to Desh, named Best New Dance Production, to Edward Watson, whose performance in The Metamorphosis at the Linbury Studio was named Outstanding Achievement In Dance, to Derren Brown for his show Svengali at the Shaftesbury, named Best Entertainment, and to the English National Opera, which won Best New Opera Production for Castor And Pollux and were also given the award for Outstanding Achievement In Opera for the “breadth and diversity of its artistic program.” The Theatre Royal Stratford East received the Outstanding Achievement In An Affiliate Theatre award for Roadkill, while the long-running Les Misérables received the BBC Radio 2 Olivier Audience Award.
The full list of winners plus videos and other news from the ceremony can be found at www.olivierawards.com.
White Light continues to be the lighting supplier of choice for many of the Olivier-winning or nominated shows this year, White Light supplied equipment to Matilda, Frankenstein, One Man Two Guvnors, Shrek, Betty Blue Eyes, Crazy for You, Les Misérables, South Pacific and The Wizard of Oz, as well as other long-running hits such as Chicago and War Horse.
For more information, please visit www.WhiteLight.Ltd.uk.
Photography of Matilda the Musical by Simon Annand
