Cabaret, Life Of Pi triumph at Olivier Awards in London
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LONDON • A critically acclaimed revival of the musical Cabaret and a stage adaptation of hit novel Life Of Pi were the big winners at the Olivier Awards on Sunday, scooping the top prizes in Britain's biggest night for theatre.
Cabaret led the nominations with 11 nods. It won seven awards, including best musical revival and prizes for actors Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley.
"This is the dream. This was the part that I played when I was a kid at school, it was the thing that got my passion for theatre really fuelled," said Redmayne, 40.
Cabaret also won best supporting acting awards for Elliot Levey and Liza Sadovy, and best director for Rebecca Frecknall.
Originally produced on Broadway in 1966, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Cabaret follows the lives of characters linked to a seedy Berlin nightclub during the rise of the Nazis.
Oscar winner Redmayne played the Kit Kat Klub's master of ceremonies and Buckley, 32, portrayed Sally Bowles, an English singer with more ambition than talent.
Life Of Pi, based on Canadian author Yann Martel's book about a boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger, won five awards, including best new play, best actor for Hiran Abeysekera and best supporting actor for the seven performers portraying the show's puppet tiger.
"The fact that we've been nominated for a puppet character... is phenomenal and a landmark moment for puppetry," actor Fred Davis said.
Back To The Future - The Musical, based on the hit 1985 science-fiction film, won best new musical. The play Constellations, about a relationship between a quantum physicist and a beekeeper, took best revival and best actress for Sheila Atim.
Liz Carr won best supporting actress for The Normal Heart, a new production of American playwright Larry Kramer's play about the 1980s Aids crisis in New York.
Established in 1976 and named after actor Laurence Olivier, the awards are Britain's most prestigious theatrical honours and its equivalent of the Tony Awards.
REUTERS