2018 Olivier Awards — Page 4

Does the UK have an off-bway equivalent? If so, I think Jamie would have fared better winning awards there first before its transfer to West End (similar to how Dear Evan Hansen back in 2016).

It was announced months if not a year before when Hamilton was going to transfer to West End. Producers could have delayed opening Jamie on West End if winning an Olivier is their number one priority.

I'm not trolling, please have an intelligent retort instead of you're a 'troll' 'snowflake' 'deranged' 'dumb' or 'lol'.

I never said it was a fringe production, I said it was from a subsidised regional theatre.

No one has a problem with stage musicals requiring a new song for Oscar consideration.

And anyone watching the Olivier's Hamilton performance can see it didn't deserve any awards based on that, compared to the Tony's Hamilton performance I loved.

I think culturally it's obviously going to sit better with American actors but the Burr there seemed like a panto villain. (Panto a popular entertainment based on Fairly tales in the UK and Ireland at Christmas involving a Dame Character traditionally played by a male actor.)

Gizmo6 said: "Also I'm not a 'stan' but it's obvious some haven't a clue about Jamie or how the West End works compared to Broadway. Jamie was a small regional musical that got a short run in the West End and gained traction. This happens a lot in the UK, where we are more concerned with artistry than money, very small regional productions with zero money will make it onto the West End Stage, these aren't out of town tryouts withmillions like Moulin Rouge or Frozen."

Oh yeah, because Broadway doesn't have a history of small productions that started off-Broadway, as regional productions, that are passion projects that made it to Broadway through blood, sweat, tears, and faith and/or are of a smaller in scale winning Tony Awards or becoming successful. Broadway has a lot of commercialism for sure (especially this season), but looking at the musicals that have been up for Oliviers, so does the West End.

Also, since when was Hamilton not a passion project started by a weird idea LMM had and followed through with for years trying to get right? Just because it has become the hit of the decade/generation doesn't take away how it started and not many people would have predicted how big it would have become no matter how big they thought it could become. That show was a real gamble before it even hit The Public Theatre off-Broadway and was coming off of the Vassar workshop. I don't know how this show doesn't qualify as "art" just because it happens to be a blockbuster now.

You need to let go of this false dichotomy that the West End and the projects you care about are "art" and everything from Broadway and things that beat your favorite shows are "not art".

Updated On: 4/9/18 at 06:17 PM

Jeez let me weigh in here.

Whilst the Hamilton London cast was for me a mixed bag (Hamilton, Burr, Washington, King, Laurens/Philip, Mulligan/Madison, Peggy/Maria all great, Angelica fine, Eliza and Lafayette/Jefferson bad), judging whether the production is worthy of its Olivier awards based on one televised performance is ridiculous. How many awkward/bad Tony performances of great productions have there been? Even the Hamilton performance at the Tonys did not come close to what it was like to see it live what with camera and sound issues and Lin being (understandably) emotional due to the events of the night before.

Giles Terera is not in any way a pantomime villain. His performance is beautifully nuanced and layered like Odom Jr and Henry before him and he is the highlight of the cast. He does have a slight speech impediment but it doesn't take away from his performance and he is fully deserving of his Olivier award.

This idea you have of 'best new British small musical that has never been seen before' or whatever is all well and good but ETAJ is a huge anomaly in that it's an original British musical that's actually worthy of people's time. We certainly don't get those every year or even most years. There simply wouldn't be enough nominees to fill the category. British musical theatre is in dire straights in comparison to American musical theatre. And whilst it would have been nice for this anomaly to be recognized, at the end of the day it's about what is best. Hamilton, in most people's minds, is easily the better musical.

The Olivers didn't even go overboard with Hamilton, it won 4 less awards than the show did at the Tonys. Other shows like The Ferryman were able to win awards like Best Director against it. So let's stop acting like ETAJ wasn't given a fair chance.

No one kicked up this much of a fuss over a big British show like Billy Elliot winning over a small American musical like Next to Normal. This is despite the fact that winning the Tony for Best Musical can actually help ticket sales a lot whereas winning the Olivier tends to do nothing. And Billy Elliot is no Hamilton. And ETAJ is no Next to Normal.

Updated On: 4/9/18 at 10:42 PM

I love the claim that Broadway productions are in better shape than West End productions.

I think the movement of productions across the Atlantic are proof of that, there's been very few coming from Broadway into the West End in recent years.

For Gizmo6, from the Olivier Awards:

''Don't Even Know It'' from ''Everybody's Talking About Jamie''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzLey7iWZU

Updated On: 4/10/18 at 03:23 AM

Wayman_Wong said: "For Gizmo6, from the Olivier Awards:

''Don't Even Know It'' from ''Everybody's Talking About Jamie''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzLey7iWZU"

Thanks Wayman, I hadn't seen it. I will say I was critical of the sound of Hamilton earlier in the thread and there seems to be a similar issue with Jamie. Perhaps a technical issue?

If anyone has any interest in the show there's a concept album and now an original recording on Apple Music.

GIZMO your passion is wonderful but your points are ill founded.

Gizmo, the reason that THE uK is taking it slow is nothing to do with art. It’s not because Britain got together and decided that they would do things slowly so as to ensure artistic ingetrity and quality. The reason is simply that musical theatre is a part of the American culture in a way that it isn’t in the UK. Musical theatre as we know it, is an American invention. It’s woven into the fabric of New York in a different way to London.

London do plays better than New York. Now NY has had done wonderful plays and will in the future but the play culture is woven into London’s fabric in the same that musical theatre is in New York.

The reason that things are happening ‘slower’ in the UK is nobody is producing new stuff. And nobody is supporting new work, on a commercial level. Sure there are numerous small companies that are championing new musicals but they are small and produced work generally consists of fringe presentations of selections from various new shows, in evenings that become more about the brand such as ‘New Musicals UK’ or ‘The Pitch Perfect Project’ (neither of those being actual names) than the work itself because sadly the work rarely gets produced beyond that. There simply is less interest commercially in financing a new musical. They cost a lot of money. A lot of money. America is doing better because more people with large chequebooks are passionate about musicals.

You mention the RNT and the Donmar? They are both publicly funded, with a huge subscriber base. You can afford to be doing new work in a place like that. But neither of those places are championing new musical theatre writing. Both are producing revivals. The last fully new musical at the RNT was ‘The Ligjt Primcess’ and even with their name, reputation and audience base they still felt that they needed a recordingartist to write the score as apposed to a musical theatre writer. The last and I think only new musical work at the Donmar was the Kids Company verbatim thing. And that piece in particular was a vanity project that would never, ever in a thousand years have gone on to have a further life in a commercial theatre but yet they spent their public funding doing it.

There are lots of younger companies setting up with their sights set on producing musicals and some doing well on tour throughout the UK. What are they touring? Avenue Q, The Wedding Singer, Footloose, Crazy for You. And why? Well, because the rights were available for a start and they need a recognised title to sell tickets.

Who in the UK is putting their neck out and pushing for new work? The Jamie musical is a wonderful, wonderful example. And it’s a delightful change that a show like this has made it. It should indeed be celebrated BUT this show has a score written by a recording artist, with no former experience of the art form and not a musical theatre writer. But the UK are somehow doing better than the states, when it comes to ‘art’ and nurturing new writers and ideas?

Updated On: 4/10/18 at 07:32 AM

The Oliviers are going to rename the Directing prize in Peter Hall's honor - in the wake of leaving him out of its Memoriam segment.

http://deadline.com/2018/04/olivier-awards-peter-hall-in-memoriam-1202361601/

Updated On: 4/10/18 at 01:03 PM