Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard emerged as the top winner of the 2024 Laurence Olivier Awards, bagging seven awards out of 11 nominations that includes the Best Actress in A Musical for female lead star Nicole Scherzinger.
The awards show took place on 14 April at the Royal Robert Hall in London. It was presented by the award-giving body named after the legendary British actor and director Laurence Olivier that recognizes and honors exceptional performances across various categories of plays, musicals, opera, dance and affiliate theatre in the United Kingdom.
Aside from Scherzinger’s Best Actress award, Sunset Boulevard, which is based on Billy Wilder’s classic black comedy of the same title, won Best Musical Revival, Outstanding Musical Contribution, Best Director for Jamie Lloyd, Best Actor in a Musical for Tom Francis, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. It bested other musical productions, such as Groundhog Day, Hadestown and Guys and Dolls.
Scherzinger takes on the coveted part of Norma Desmond, a big star of the silent film era who can’t accept her time in the spotlight has passed. The role had been played by iconic actresses Gloria Swanson in the original movie (1950), Patti LuPone in the original West End production (1993) and Glenn Close in the Broadway staging (1994).
This is Scherzinger’s first Olivier win and her second nomination after giving a stellar performance in Cats in 2015.
“I always really wanted to be a singer and do musicals, and I dreamed of so many roles that I wanted to do. And honestly this role, Norma Desmond, was not one of those roles,” the former Pussycat Dolls lead singer joked as she accepted her acting prize.
“But God works in mysterious ways because it’s honestly one of the ballsiest and bravest things I’ve ever done,” she added. “I’ve had an incomparable director Jamie Lloyd to thank for that.”
Meanwhile, plays such as Dear England, Operation Mincemeat, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Picture of Dorian Gray tied with two wins.
The Olivier Awards may be considered equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards and the theater counterpart of BAFTA Awards for film and television.
