OLIVIERS 2011: LIVE Blog!

8.56pm: Well, that was interesting. What did you think? Let me know in the comments. And keep an eye out for our reaction blogs tonight and tomorrow, and a special Oliviers podcast later in the week. Goodnight!

8.54pm: Lots of young performers sing Our Time, and Ball and Staunton thank everyone and that's IT! Staunton takes her heels off, though, while bidding us farewell. That woman is amazing. Everyone marches on to the stage to take their bows.

8.49pm: Another standing ovation for Lansbury. Rightly so. And then Michael Ball has a dig at Imelda Staunton by saying that Lansbury is the definitive Mrs Lovett.

8.41pm: A nicely brief and elegant thank you speech from Sondheim, and then Lansbury shunts the men away from the centre of the stage, and announces she is going to sing a song that he knows. HA! She sings Liaisons from A Little Night Music.

8.38pm: And now he welcomes on stage Angela freakin' LANSBURY! She gets a standing ovation, obviously. Then she introduces Stephen Sondheim, who comes on and hugs her, and collects his award.

8.33pm: Cameron Mackintosh comes on to do a little speech about Sondheim.

8.28pm: And finally, it's the Special Award. We all know it's going to Stephen Sondheim, right? Adrian Lester begins the tributes with a performance of Being Alive from Company. Which uses off-stage pre-recorded voiceovers to fill in the dialogue, which sounds a bit gimmicky.

8.24pm: Eddie Redmayne and Lesley Manville are presenting the award for Best Play. She says new writing is important because actors then get to see their names in the first edition of the script. The winner is Clybourne Park.

8.20pm: And the award goes to Legally Blonde!

8.19pm: Barry Manilow is going to present the award for Best New Musical. He does a little talk first, for some reason.

8.16pm: Back to the stage with Dave Stewart and Caissie Levy for the award for Best Musical Revival...to Into The Woods. Meanwhile, Lyric Hammersmith has won Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for Blasted.

8.15pm: Sheridan Smith is refusing to be drawn on the possibility of being Bridget Jones in the musical next year.

8.13pm: Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon are there as well, talking about the production of Pygmalion they are going to star in. And now everyone is talking about simulating org*sms, and Paul Gambaccini is embarrassed.

8.11pm: Sheridan Smith looks completely stunned, and gets Jill Halfpenny to do all the talking for her backstage.

8.06pm: Barry welcomes to the stage his "new friend" Kerry Ellis!

8.02pm: It's time for Barry Manilow, people! Get those yellow feathers in your hair!

7.59pm: And now Amanda Holden to present Best Actor in a Musical...to David Thaxton for Passion.

7.56pm: Here's Rupert Everett to present Best Actress in a Musical, and he bellows his lines. Why? There's a mike there, Rupert. And Sheridan Smith wins! So pleased for her. She cries her way to the stage, as everyone else beams at her. Lovely lady.

7.54pm: Jill Halfpenny wins Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. That's a shock.

7.52pm: While Elaine Paige is making us grateful to her, Best Entertainment goes to The Railway Children, and La Boheme is Best Opera Production.

7.51pm: Blimey. Elaine Paige is now taking credit for singlehandedly getting the Oliviers televised. So guys, you all know who to blame.

7.50pm: And now Brian May is talking about how much he loves Wicked, and the Wicked ladies are inviting him along to the show. Could they not sort this out off-camera?

7.47pm: Brian May's off on a rant defending Ben Elton. Meanwhile, the Outstanding Achievement in Opera Award for 2011 goes to Christian Gerhaher.

7.43pm: And Howard Davies wins for The White Guard!

7.42pm: Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams (in a kind of leopardskin jumpsuit) present Best Director next, she with a very lame gag about "being lost".

7.40pm: Brian May goes to accept the award on behalf of We Will Rock You!

7.38pm: Time for the Radio 2 Audience Award, with Elaine Paige presenting alongside Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman.

7.30pm: Back to the real business - starting with the nominees for Best Musical Revival. Sweet Charity is up first, with Josefina Gabrielle being as fabulous as ever. Next is Passion, with Elena Roger singing Loving You. And then pretty much the whole cast of Into The Woods pile on to the stage.

7.25pm: An instrumental of West Side Story. Which isn't nominated, and has no West End production planned. Hey ho.

7.24pm: OK, so now it's officially the interval of the show, and they cut back to the stage for an instrumental.

7.19pm: Now JOJ is being interviewed, in full Phantom facemask. He is BRILLIANT, and winding up Paul Gambaccini, who has NO idea. And Michael Ball has just wandered in and said, "You're not even WEARING make-up, John, don't LIE."

7.15pm: The BBC have spent the past 15 minutes talking to Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll, in an attempt to make up for cutting away from her speech.

7pm: And now actually on stage, the London cast of Phantom. Ooh, it's not! It's John Owen Jones, the London Phantom, and Sierra Boggess, who is of course playing Christine in Love Never Dies!

6.57pm: A bit of Phantom now, with a lovely if lengthy excerpt from the EPK.

6.54pm: Best Actor goes to Roger Allam! I miss his crazy Falstaff beard. 

6.53pm: Best costume design goes to Hildegard Bechtler for After The Dance, which is doing ridiculously well tonight.

6.52pm: A heavily pregnant Nancy Carroll comes on to the stage to receive her prize from Joss Ackland, and then Paul Gambaccini talks over her acceptance speech.

6.50pm: And Best Actress is Nancy Carroll.

6.48pm: TIME FOR BEST ACTRESS. Exciting! Tracie Bennett, Nancy Carroll, Tamsin Greig or Sophie Thompson?

6.47pm: Best Choreographer - Leon Baugh for Sucker Punch!

6.43pm: Alfie Boe, soon to return to Les Miserables, is singing Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific.

6.42pm: Babel wins both the dance awards - Best New Dance Production, and Outstanding Achievement.

6.40pm: Gok Wan and Es Devlin present the award for Best Set Design to The White Guard designed by Bunny Christie.

6.39pm: There's uproar on Twitter about the BBC's coverage of the award ceremony tonight.

6.34pm: And Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Adrian Scarborough.

6.33pm: Back to the stage for Best Supporting Actress, presented by Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch. The winner is Michelle Terry!

6.30pm: Ah, they're not bothering to cover the technical awards. Congrats to Adam Cork, best sound design for King Lear at the Donmar, and Neil Austin, best lighting design for the White Guard at the National.

6.23pm: For some reason, the TV coverage is focusing on Matt Wolf and Paul Gambaccini pontificating in a dressing room at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, rather than what is happening on stage.

6.19pm: First award - Best Revival, to be presented by Sir Patrick Stewart! And it's AFTER THE DANCE.

6.08pm: Some comic verbal sparring between our hosts, and then we get a montage of our Best New Musical nominees - Fela! (filmed), Love Story (Michael Xavier and Emma Williams looking cute and kissing with passion as always, but I really wish they'd sung the pasta song), Love Never Dies (Ramin Karimloo singing Till I Hear You Sing, and Sierra Boggess doesn't get to sing at all), and Legally Blonde (performing the Remix).

6.06pm: ...which cultimates in a young man receiving a mimed Olivier Award. Right, let's get Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton on and get this thing under way. They walk on hand in hand.

6.04pm: We're beginning with a danced medley of musical theatre songs...

6pm: The curtain is up! Here we go!

5.58pm: Amazing. Brian May just called Ben Elton "much maligned" and announced that he is now a member of Queen.

5.30pm: Currently Jodie Prenger, the Lady of the Lake in the tour of Spamalot, is wandering around the red carpet and accosting people for interviews.

4.30pm: The red carpet is packed and the stars are making their way into the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. And I'll be blogging all night to keep you updated on the winners, the losers, the dresses, the acceptance speeches and all the things we love most about the Olivier Awards.

More than that, I'll be speaking to some West End stars and creatives to get their thoughts on the evening. Join me!