It's that time of year again, the Tonys (or The Oscars) of the West End... Tonys named after Antoinette Perry, at least people still know the name Laurence Olivier and who he was, although I'm not really typical of people my age. Anyway, this year was the second time the Olivier Awards have been broadcast and anyone who watched last year's coverage could not disagree that it was a complete disaster - every 5minutes the TV broadcast was interrupted to go to the radio coverage, which meant watching two middle-aged men in a small room talking about the last award given out; two Americans, Paul Gambaccini and some unknown, and as someone said on Twitter no coverage of American awards would have two Unknown British journalists talking about Broadway! Not even the appearance of Angela Lansbury could save it!
So compared to last year this year's coverage, again on the BBC Red Button and Radio 2, presented by Ken Bruce, seemed like a vast improvement! There were some technical difficulties but when the picture failed I turned on the radio and listened to that until the problem was fixed; there were also a few minor sound issues but other than that the coverage was the complete opposite of last year's - uninterrupted! This meant not only did we get to see the presentation of the awards but also the performances from the shows nominated Best Musical Revival and Best New Musical, my favorite of these were Sharon D Clarke performing "I'm Outta Here" from Ghost the Musical (amazing voice, why she's never made an album I don't know!) and Sarah Lancashire performing "Nobody" from Betty Blue Eyes, I'm rather disappointed that didn't have a longer run, I wouldn't have minded seeing that... it had an animatronic pig voiced by Kylie Minogue for God sake!
Living where I do means I don't get to see much of these shows that get the awards, I have been to London to see something every year since 2009 but the awards have only been broadcast twice in their 36 years so I wasn't aware of the winners in previous years. I haven't seen any of this years but to be honest, as i previously said, the only would I did fancy seeing has finished with a rather short run. That being said it was a good chance to see some musical numbers from current shows. I am surprised that the Young Vic's production of Hamlet starring Michael Sheen was up for anything, maybe it's because it wasn't strictly in the 'West End'? I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing one of next year's winning shows though, Sweeney Todd is bound to win something, best actor for Mr Ball or actress for Ms Staunton. Incidentally I am loving the double act of Micheal Ball and Imelda Staunton presenting for the second year in a row, I hope if they continue broadcasting it these two will present a few more! Maybe in a few years it will be off the Red Button and on normal telly.
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