LONDON — A revival of “Cabaret” that has been the debate of London’s theater international since opening in December, on Sunday swept the Olivier Awards, Britain’s similar of the Tonys.
Starring Eddie Redmayne in his first London position in a decade, “Cabaret” accrued seven awards right through a rite at London’s Royal Albert Corridor. Its haul integrated easiest musical revival, easiest actor in a musical (Redmayne), easiest actress in a musical for Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles, and easiest director for Rebecca Frecknall.
Britain’s newspaper reviewers on occasion struggled for superlatives to explain “Cabaret.” Nick Curtis, writing in The Night time Usual, summed it up with a easy: “Wow. Simply wow.”
Matt Wolf, reviewing the display for The New York Occasions, stated that Frecknall had made a “exceptional access into musical theater” after a number of lauded degree productions right here, together with of Chekhov’s “3 Sisters” and Tennessee Williams’s “Summer time and Smoke.” “Frecknall pulls us right into a hedonistic milieu, simplest to ship us out just about 3 hours later reminded of lifestyles’s horrors,” he added.
The musical has won as a lot consideration for its staging as its performances, with audiences made to go into the Playhouse Theater via a facet door, simplest to find the development has been remodeled to appear to be a Nineteen Twenties Berlin nightclub. Ticketholders — a few of whom criticized sky-high price tag costs — must paintings their means via a labyrinth of corridors stuffed with dancers and beverages to get to their seats.
Of the actors in its authentic forged, Redmayne received specific plaudits. Arifa Akbar, writing in The Mum or dad, stated he used to be “electrical,” including: “He offers an immense, physicalized efficiency, each muscular and gentle, from his curled limbs to his tautly expressive fingertips.”
The opposite giant winner on Sunday used to be “Lifetime of Pi” at Wyndham’s Theater, Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel a few zookeeper’s son who, after a transport twist of fate, is caught on a lifeboat at sea with simplest animals for corporate. It took 5 awards together with easiest new play and easiest actor for Hiran Abeysekera, in addition to a crowd-pleasing easiest supporting actor award for the seven puppeteers who convey a 44-pound puppet tiger to lifestyles onstage.
Reviewers had ceaselessly singled out the ones puppeteers for reward. Dominic Cavendish, writing in The Day by day Telegraph, stated they made the tiger exude “a watchful malevolence and innate elegance,” as he “strikes from brute prowling risk to character in his personal proper.”
Every other presentations did set up to get prizes on the Oliviers. “Again to the Long run: the Musical” on the Adelphi Theater, a display that has grabbed consideration for its flying automotive up to its songs, received easiest new musical, beating presentations together with “Get Up! Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical” and the London debut of “Frozen.”
The most efficient comedy play went to “Delight and Prejudice* (*type of)” on the Criterion Theater, a quick and free retelling of Jane Austen’s novel, which closed in February mentioning a loss of audiences returning to the West Finish.
The opposite notable winner used to be a revival of “Constellations” through the Donmar Warehouse on the Vaudeville Theater, which took awards for easiest revival and easiest actress in a play for Sheila Atim. That 70-minute, one-act play, a few couple falling out and in of affection, used to be successful final summer time as British theater got here again to lifestyles after a couple of lockdowns.
