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The absolutely insane shortlist for best new musical at the 2025 Laurence Olivier Awards – aka the UK’s biggest and most prestigious theatre awards – kind of sums up what an odd year 2024 was for the form. We have The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, a cult folk musical that’s been around for years but only finally made it to the West End (and Oliviers eligibility) last year. We have MJ the Musical, a colossal Broadway jukebox monster that plays to a bigger house than the other three nominees combined each night. We have Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812, which is brilliant but is also literally 13 years old (although it only made its UK debut last year). And we have Why Am I So Single?, the eccentric flop from the creators of the smash hit Six.
Nothing wrong with any of these shows (well, Why Am I So Single? has an annoyingly self-indulgent song about a bee in it) but the weird list sums up a year where once again new musicals struggled to assert themselves in the public consciousness.
As with last year’s awards, it feels increasingly clear that the musical revival category is where the big hits are, with the leader of the pack being the Open Air Theatre’s acclaimed revival of Bock & Stein’s Fiddler on the Roof. With 13 nominations it has absolutely left everything around it for dead (nothing else has more than six), which feels like more of a reflection of the fact it was strong all round – lots of technical nominations, lots of acting nominations – than it was necessarily talked up as the year’s best show in 2024 itself.
For once the real action this year comes in the serious drama categories. Often dominated by big budget entertainments rather than actual serious plays, the 2025 categories see a thrilling clash between two, very different, very substantive dramas. On the one hand we have Mark Rosenblatt’s superb if slightly old fashioned Giant, which concerns Roald Dahl’s antisemitism – John Lithgow is surely nailed on to win Best Actor. On the other there’s Eline Arbo’s searing biographical drama The Years, which has become infamous for causing theatregoers to faint, but don’t let that distract you from a superb work. Curiously the two share a cast member, Romola Garai, who is nominated for best support actress for both plays (for my money she absolutely deserves it for The Years).
For a full list of nominations, head here.
The Laurence Olivier Awards will take place on Sunday April 6 at the Royal Albert Hall. Highlights of the night will be screened on ITV.
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