2017 Olivier Awards to Be Held at the Royal Albert Hall

The 2017 Olivier Awards will be held at the Royal Albert Hall.

London theatre's most prestigious awards began in 1976 as The Society of West End Theatre Awards, becoming the Olivier Awards in 1984.

Run by Society of London Theatre (SOLT), the 2011 Olivier Awards with MasterCard re-established the ceremony as the key theatre event in the UK's cultural calendar with a star-studded evening of red carpet glamour, theatrical royalty, glittering awards, superstar guests and unique entertainment.

On 3 April 2016, the Olivier Awards with MasterCard returned to the striking Royal Opera House for an evening celebrating London's incredible theatre industry with awards, stars and fantastic performances.

British theatre's most sought-after awards have been a mark of theatrical greatness since they were inaugurated in 1976 as the Society of West End Theatre Awards. The society is now known as Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and its glittering awards are now the Olivier Awards in honour of a theatrical legend.

That first 1976 awards ceremony was held at the Café Royal on a wintry Sunday in December. The winners - who included Alan Howard, Peggy Ashcroft, Penelope Keith and Jonathan Miller - did not receive the iconic bronze statuette we know today. Instead the prize was a specially commissioned blue Wedgwood urn.

The first ceremony featured just 12 awards, a tally which has grown through the years as the awards have become increasingly more prominent. The following year - in which Judi Dench and Ian McKellen were among the winners - included 16 categories and introduced awards for ballet and opera for the first time.

In 1979, Lord Olivier was given the Society's Special Award in celebration of his contribution to London theatre, but it was not until 1984 that the hugely acclaimed theatrical peer agreed to his name being associated with the awards and they became the Olivier Awards.

A quick glance at the winners of the Special Award through the years reads as a Who's Who of British theatrical history, with Olivier joined by Ralph Richardson, Joan Littlewood, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Peggy Ashcroft, Harold Pinter, Peter Hall, Judi Dench, Alan Bennett, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Ayckbourn, Maggie Smith, Gillian Lynne, Michael Frayn, Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Spacey.

The Olivier Awards ceremony has had a nomadic existence being presented both in theatres and ballrooms across London. Since 2012, the Olivier Awards has been staged at the incredible Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Like the Olivier Awards, the Tony Awards ceremony has also been held in multiple locations. From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, when it was held at the Gershwin Theatre. In 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theatre. The 67th Tony Awards returned to Radio City Music Hall on June 9, 2013, as did the 68th Tony Awards on June 8, 2014 and the 69th Tony Awards on June 7, 2015.