Olivier Awards 2022: Life of Pi and Cabaret win big at annual theatre awards

Virgin Radio

11 Apr 2022, 09:18

One of the biggest nights in theatre took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night (10th April).

Cabaret took home the most prizes on the night, bagging seven gongs include Best Musical Revival, Best Actor in a Musical for Eddie Redmayne and Best Actress for Jessie Buckley. 

Life of Pi, based on the bestselling novel by Yann Martel, also landed five, winning the top prize of Best New Play and Best Actor for Hiran Abeysekera. All seven actors who played the Tiger also landed the Best Supporting Actor trophy. 

While on stage accepting his prize for the infamous Emcee in Cabaret, Eddie said: “This is the dream. For me, this is the one.

"This was the part that I played when I was a kid in school. It was the thing that got my passion for theatre really fuelled."

Jessie, who played Salley Bowles, added in her speech: “It's such a huge privilege to be part of this community which I consider my family. Thank you for welcoming me in all those years ago. This is just so lovely."

Life of Pi’s playwright Lolita Chakrabarti thanked the original book’s author for ‘the freedom to do what I wanted with his story’, and also husband Adrian Lester while on stage. 

She said: “When I started writing, he was my biggest fan and encouraged me completely. When all the doors were shut, he said 'keep knocking, because they'll open’.”

Back To The Future: The Musical took home the prize for Best New Musical, which is one of the most competitive categories of the night, while Best Revival was given to Constellations. 

In between the awards announcements were live performances from the casts of Moulin Rouge, Drifters Girl, Frozen, Anything Goes and Get Up Stand Up.

The Olivier Awards 2022 - Winners List: 

Best new play - Life of Pi

Best new musical - Back to the Future: The Musical

Best entertainment or comedy play - Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of)

Best revival - Constellations

Best musical revival - Cabaret

Best family show - Wolf Witch Giant Fairy

Best director - Rebecca Frecknall for Cabaret

Best actor - Hiran Abeysekera for Life of Pi

Best actress - Sheila Atim for Constellations

Best supporting actor - The seven actors who play the Tiger for Life of Pi

Best supporting actress - Liz Carr for The Normal Heart

Best actor in a musical - Eddie Redmayne for Cabaret

Best actress in a musical - Jessie Buckley for Cabaret

Best supporting actor in a musical - Elliot Levey for Cabaret

Best supporting actress in a musical - Liza Sadovy for Cabaret

Best set design - Tim Hatley for Design and Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell for the puppets for Life of Pi

Best lighting design - Tim Lutkin and Andrzej Goulding for Life of Pi

Best new dance production - Revisor by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young

Best new opera - Jenůfa

Best costume design - Catherine Zuber for Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Best sound design - Nick Lidster for Cabaret

Best original score or orchestration - Simon Hale for Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical

Best theatre choreographer - Kathleen Marshall for Anything Goes

Outstanding achievement in dance - Arielle Smith for her choreography of Jolly Folly in Reunion by English National Ballet

Outstanding achievement in opera - Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra for Bajazet

Outstanding achievement in affiliate theatre - Old Bridge - Bush theatre

Special award - Sylvia Young, Lisa Burger, Bob King, Gloria Louis, Susie Sainsbury