Britain’s Olivier Awards were among the first awards shows to indefinitely postpone their ceremony this spring due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, calling off their initially scheduled April 5 ceremony on March 17. However, after the intervening months proved the quarantine will be with us for a while, organizers went ahead and aired a prerecorded 2020 Oliviers on Sunday, October 25. (Since this year’s nominees were announced March 3, it probably just felt cruel to make them sweat it out any longer.)
Among this year’s winners is the Hot Priest himself, Andrew Scott, who took home this year’s Best Actor award for his turn in Present Laughter. His Fleabag co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, however, did not win Best Actress for her starring role in the stage play on which her TV series is based. Instead, Sharon D. Clarke won for her work in the Young Vic’s largely Black version of Death of a Salesman, a show that also won Best Director. Last year, Clarke won Best Actress in a Musical for her work in Caroline, or Charge.
Speaking of musicals, this year’s Best New Musical went to (what else?) Dear Evan Hansen, while Best New Play went to Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt. Including this year’s prize for Best Actor in a Musical for lead Sam Tutty, Dear Evan Hansen tied with & Juliet, a musical revisitation of the infamous Shakespeare couple via the pop music of Max Martin, and Emilia, with three awards each. Ian McKellen, meanwhile, took home a special Olivier celebrating his 80th birthday tour, Ian McKellen On Stage, which he performed at over 80 venues to raise money for regional theaters. And that was before COVID-19. You can read the rest of this year’s Olivier winners here.