The Week in Light & Sound
- Details
Recipients include: Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust - £3,000,000; English National Ballet - £3,000,000; Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust - £3,000,000; The Old Vic Theatre Trust - £3,000,000; Shakespeare’s Globe - £2,985,707; Sadler’s Wells - £2,975,000; Adlib Audio - £1,650,356; Fabric Life - £1,514,262; Lights Control Rigging Productions - £1,076,179 and The Octagon Theatre Trust - £620,232.
Virtual Awards - The Olivier Awards 2020, held virtually for the first time because of the pandemic, saw three shows lead the field, with three accolades each, while Matthew Bourne made history, having now won the most Oliviers ever by one person, and Sonia Friedman Productions picked up the best new play prize for the fourth year running.
The most awards won by a single show, shared equally by & Juliet, Dear Evan Hansen and Emilia. & Juliet won three out of the four musical performance categories – which went to Miriam-Teak Lee, Cassidy Janson and David Bedella – while Dear Evan Hansen’s Sam Tutty picked up the fourth.
Death of a Salesman went home with two awards, for leading actress Sharon D Clarke and its co-directors Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell. Mary Poppins’ choreographers Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, and set designer Bob Crowley also won.
Best set design went to Bob Crowley for Mary Poppins. Paule Constable won the Best lighting category for The Ocean At The End Of The Lane; Best sound design went to Emma Laxton for Emilia.
The Duchess of Cornwall made an impassioned speech in support of theatre as she presented a special award to lyricist Don Black. "Those of us who believe in the theatre also believe in its resilience," she said. "It is a cornerstone of a fertile cultural life, a forum for debate, and a powerful means of building community.
"I should like to thank those of you whose profession is in the theatre for your determination and your flexibility. Please remain resilient - we need you and we have missed you."
In The Saleroom - A David Hockney painting put up for auction by the Royal Opera House to raise crucial funds for its survival has been sold for nearly £13m. The painting, of its former chief executive David Webster, went under the hammer at Christie’s in London on 22 October. The painting had an estimate of £11-18m, achieving £12.8m on the night. It is understood that the proceeds will go some way to lessening the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the ROH, which has described the pandemic as "the biggest crisis in its history".
Taylor Swift's latest album Folklore has returned to number one in America, becoming the first record to sell more than a million copies in 2020.
The star's low-key eighth album was recorded during lockdown and released in August.
(Jim Evans)
27 October 2020
