“Paddington,” a new musical about the marmalade-loving bear that has been London’s hottest theater ticket since it opened last fall, was the big winner at this year’s Olivier Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.
The show, which is running at the Savoy Theater through May 2027, won seven prizes on Sunday during a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That was five more than any other production.
Its accolades included best new musical, best director for Luke Sheppard and best actor in a musical, which was shared by James Hameed and Arti Shah, the actors who bring Paddington to life. (Shah plays Paddington onstage, wearing a costume, while Hameed voices the bear and controls his facial movements from offstage.)
The many awards for “Paddington” were perhaps unsurprising given that the show earned rave reviews when it opened and has played to sellout crowds ever since. Tim Bano, writing this month in The Stage, a theater newspaper, said the musical “could well have been an easy cash grab” but was in fact “something of great integrity, with earworms that stick in the mind like marmalade to toast.”
Several other productions won two awards on Sunday, including a revival of “Evita” that ran at the London Palladium and starred Rachel Zegler as the doomed Eva Perón.
Zegler won best actress in a musical that drew vast crowds outside the theater hoping to see her perform “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from a balcony overlooking the street. Paying guests watched that moment on a screen inside the theater.
“Evita,” which also won best choreographer for Fabian Aloise, had been nominated for best musical revival, but that award went to a production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods,” which is running at the Bridge Theater through May 30.
The coveted best new play award went to “Punch,” by James Graham, which ran last year on both the West End and Broadway. It beat out, among other plays, “Inter Alia,” which stars Rosamund Pike, who won the best actress prize on Sunday. That play is set to transfer to Broadway this fall.
“Punch,” which tells of an accidental death, also received the best supporting actress prize for Julie Hesmondhalgh’s performance as a grieving mother trying to forgive her son’s killer.
The best revival award went to “All My Sons,” directed by Ivo van Hove and starring Bryan Cranston, which ran at Wyndham’s Theater. It also secured the best actor in a supporting role award for Paapa Essiedu as a man hoping to marry his dead brother’s girlfriend.
The New York Times wrote that Essiedu’s performance gave the role a “heart-rending poignancy.”
The only other production to win more than one award was “Kenrex,” a one-man show starring Jack Holden about the real-life case of a man who once terrorized a small town in Missouri.
The show won the best sound design award, while Holden took home best actor, beating a starry list of nominees that included Bryan Cranston and Tom Hiddleston.
British critics had raved about Holden’s performance in which he portrays dozens of characters. Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times called the play “a master class in acting and storytelling.”
“Kenrex” will open in New York, at the Lucille Lortel Theater, on April 16 and run through June 27.
Alex Marshall is a Times reporter covering European culture. He is based in London.
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