UK Roundup - Sunday, Oliviers, Daniel Radcliffe, Parade

The Menier Chocolate Factory's production of Sunday in the Park with George has dominated the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards and will now head to Broadway's Studio 54 on January 18th 2008. Winner of Outstanding Musical Production, Best Design (for its innovative use of video projection), Best Actor and Actress in a Musical and Best Lighting, the barrage of awards led to Hannah Waddingham of Spamalot to complain to the Evening Standard that "I really do begrudge the fact we didn't win best new musical. I'm totally pissed off we didn't win that. I'm actually angry. Surely if you are nominated in seven categories there is a reason for that and at some point that should be acknowledged."

Among the other major winners include Caroline, or Change for Best New Musical, beating Avenue Q, Spamalot and Porgy and Bess to the award. In the acting categories Tamsin Greig won Best Actress for Much Ado About Nothing – beating Kathleen Turner for Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which failed to pick up Best Revival too – Rufus Sewell won Best Actor for Rock 'n' Roll, and Jim Norton picked up Best Supporting Actor. The RSC's production of The Crucible, starring Iain Glen, won both Best Revival and Best Director. For the first time ever, the Olivier Awards were broadcast on the Internet, as they are no longer broadcast on British TV. Full coverage can be found here.

Jason Robert Brown's Parade will receive its London premiere at the acclaimed Donmar Warehouse venue in London. The musical – first seen in New York in 1998 and winner of Best Score and Best Book at the Tony Awards – concerns the true story of Leo Frank, who was convicted for murdering a worker in his factory. The production will be directed by theatre choreographer Rob Ashford (best known for his award winning choreography in Thoroughly Modern Millie), who makes his directorial debut with the musical. No casting has been announced but dates have been confirmed for previews from September 14th, opening night 24th and a run until November 24th.

Currently causing a big buzz in town is the start of previews for Daniel Radcliffe's stage debut in Equus. The newspapers have been busy reporting his nude scene, the fact that he smokes onstage and also that he is beginning to grow a beard. Michael Riedel in the New York Post speculated recently that the production is hoping to run on Broadway with Radcliffe and co-star Richard Griffiths, who won Best Actor in a Play at the Tony Awards last year for his role in the Broadway transfer of The History Boys. The revival of Peter Shaffer's play is directed by Thea Sharrock and designed by the original 1973 production designer John Napier. It has a limited season until June 9th, after which Radcliffe begins filming for Harry Potter.

The director Steven Pimlott has died of lung cancer aged 52. He had only recently begun rehearsals at The National Theatre for his production of Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, which will now be taken over by Nicholas Hytner, a lifelong friend from his school days. Pimlott – probably best known for his work on Lloyd Webber's Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and for the recent West End and Broadway productions of Bombay Dreams – had a versatile career in opera, Shakespeare and musicals, a regular director at both the RSC and Opera North. Another recent death was that of Sheridan Morley, theatre critic, writer and director. Morley was a high-profile biographer and a prolific public figure.

To post a comment, you must register and login.