CriticalDance Forum

PRESS RELEASE <P><B>SADLER'S WELLS PERFORMANCES DOMINATE <BR>OLIVIER AWARDS DANCE NOMINATIONS</B> <P>Sadler's Wells swept the board when the Olivier Awards dance nominations were announced. Seven out of eight nominations went to companies' performances at Sadler's Wells over the last twelve months. Sankai Juku's Hibiki, Dutch National Ballet's Live and Mark Morris Dance Group's Sadler's Wells season all won recognition, with Ballett Frankfurt picking-up a total of three nominations.<P>Nominations for Best New Dance Production went to: <P>Ballett Frankfurt's EIDOS: TELOS at Sadler's Wells <BR>Sankai Juku's HIBIKI at Sadler's Wells <BR>Dutch National Ballet's LIVE at Sadler's Wells <BR>The Royal Ballet's ONEGIN at the Royal Opera House <P>Nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Dance: <P>Ushio Amagatsu for the concept, direction, choreography and performance of Sankai Juku's HIBIKI at Sadler's Wells <BR>Dana Caspersen for her performances in Ballett Frankfurt's ARTIFACT and EIDOS:TELOS at Sadler's Wells <BR>William Forsythe for Ballett Frankfurt's ARTIFACT and EIDOS:TELOS at Sadler's Wells <BR>Mark Morris for the Mark Morris Dance Group's season at Sadler's Wells <P>Alistair Spalding, Sadler's Wells Director of Programming says: <BR>"We are delighted that the quality of work by so many of the wonderful companies that we have had in last year's season at Sadler's Wells has been recognised by the Olivier judges".<P>The 26th annual Laurence Olivier Awards will be hosted by Clive Anderson on 15 February in a lunchtime ceremony at the Victoria Palace Theatre. The Awards presentation and highlights will be shown on BBC2 on 16 February at 7pm.<BR>

The Olivier Awards cover a great many categories in the theatre world. Here are the nominations in the various categories covering Musicals:<P><B>THE HILTON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MUSICAL PRODUCTION</B> <P>KISS ME, KATE music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Sam & Bella Spewack at the Victoria Palace.<P>MY FAIR LADY book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe, adapted from Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.<P>SOUTH PACIFIC music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan at the Olivier.<P><B>BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT</B><P>Barbara Cook for BARBARA COOK SINGS MOSTLY SONDHEIM at the Lyric.<P>Ruthie Henshall for PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED at the Shaftesbury.<P>Martine McCutcheon for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.<P>Marin Mazzie for KISS ME, KATE at the Victoria Palace. <P><B>BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT</B><P>Brent Barrett for KISS ME, KATE at the Victoria Palace.<P>Paul Keating for CLOSER TO HEAVEN at the Arts.<P>Jonathan Pryce for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.<P>Philip Quast for SOUTH PACIFIC at the Olivier. <P><B>BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT</B><P>Nancy Anderson for KISS ME, KATE at the Victoria Palace.<P>Michael Berresse for KISS ME, KATE at the Victoria Palace.<P>Martyn Jacques for SHOCKHEADED PETER at the Piccadilly.<P>Nicholas Le Prevost for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. <P><B>BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER</B><P>Matthew Bourne for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.<P>Irving Davies for THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE at Wyndham's.<P>Scarlett Mackmin for PRIVATES ON PARADE at the Donmar Warehouse.<P>Kathleen Marshall for KISS ME, KATE at the Victoria Palace. <P><BR>In addition this year, '...a new Laurence Olivier Award voted for exclusively by the theatregoing public will recognise the continuing excellence of the West End’s long-running shows.<P>The Audience Award for Most Popular Show is for productions that have been running for more than twelve months - shows which continue to provide superb entertainment to many thousands of people.' Here are the nominations:<P>The Woman in Black <BR>Art <BR>An Inspector Calls <BR>Blood Brothers <BR>Chicago <BR>Fame <BR>Les Misérables <BR>Mamma Mia! <BR>Reduced Shakespeare Company <BR>Stones in His Pockets <BR>The Lion King <BR>The Mousetrap <BR>The Phantom of the Opera <BR>Cats<P>For full details and the voting form, <A HREF="http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/olivier/audienceawards/" TARGET=_blank><B>click here</B></A><P><BR> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited January 18, 2002).]

Article in The Independent on the dominance of musicals in The Olivier Award nominations.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Revivals of Kiss Me, Kate and My Fair Lady, two classic Broadway musicals, dominated nominations for the 2002 Laurence Olivier Awards, announced today.<P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/news/story.jsp?story=114945" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Those of you who have read the Olivier Awards nominations article in The Independent, will have noticed that the dance and choreography sections do not even get a mention.<P>If you feel strongly about this omission of the art form you love, you might like to consider sharing your views with the Editor of The Indie: <P>feedback@inuk.co.uk

<BR><small>Sankai Juku's 'Hibiki'</small><P><BR>Here are the dance related awards for 2002:<P>******************************************<P>BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION<P>Winner:<BR>Sankai Juku's HIBIKI at Sadler's Wells. <P>OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE<P>Winner:<BR>Mark Morris for the Mark Morris Dance Group's season at Sadler's Wells. <P>BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER<P>Winner:<BR>Matthew Bourne for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. <P>THE HILTON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MUSICAL PRODUCTION <P>Winner:<BR>MY FAIR LADY book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe, adapted from Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture at the Lyttelton and now at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. <P><BR>BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT<P>Winner:<BR>Martine McCutcheon for MY FAIR LADY at the Lyttelton and at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. <P>BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT<P>Winner:<BR>Philip Quast for SOUTH PACIFIC at the Olivier. <P><BR>***********************************<P><B>Stuart adds</B>: Congratulations to all the winners. I didn't see 'Hibiki' when it was at Sadler's wells, but as the <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000010.html" TARGET=_blank><B>reviews</B></A> show most of the critics found it hard going. <P>Mark Morris is a firm favourite here in the UK and both the London and touring programmes showed his skills at full flight. Here is the <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000013.html" TARGET=_blank><B>thread from our Dance Umbrella forum</B></A>. I'm delighted to say that the good people at Dance Umbrella used this criticaldance forum to keep the participating dance companies like the Mark Morris dance Group up to date with the latest reviews. <P>Matthew Bourne picks up yet another award, this time for 'My Fair Lady'. Here is our <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000165.html" TARGET=_blank><B>thread on the show</B></A>.<P>Here's the link to our coverage of <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000144.html" TARGET=_blank><B>'South Pacific'</B></A>.<P>And finally here are is the link to the <A HREF="http://www.olivierawards.com/" TARGET=_blank><B>full award details</B></A> with all the nominees. <P><BR>

<BR><small>Mark Morris Dance Group in 'Grand Duo' performed on his 2001 UK tour</small><P>15 February 2002<P>PRESS RELEASE<P><BR><B>Mark Morris wins 2 major Awards</B><P>New York based choreographer and Dance Umbrella regular, Mark Morris was today the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for "the Mark Morris Dance Group's season at Sadler's Wells" as part of Dance Umbrella 2001. This accompanies his recent Time Out Live Award for the most Outstanding Production, recognising the critical and public acclaim of the world premiere of Morris's work V.<P><BR><B>Mark Morris Dance Group UK Tour</B><P>Dance Umbrella secured record-breaking funding from the Art Council of England in the form of the largest single grant awarded to an international contemporary dance company from the National Touring Programme. Managed by Dance Umbrella, with generous kind support from American Airlines, Mark Morris Dance Group undertook its most ambitious and successful UK tour to date.<P>"Mark Morris Dance Group enjoyed huge success on tour this year with a beautiful programme of work that reached more people than ever. Over 16,000 tickets were sold during this eight venue tour which took to the road following festival performances at Sadler's Wells. Dance Umbrella looks forward to presenting the company's return visit to the UK." <BR>Val Bourne, Artistic Director<P><BR>Dance Umbrella 2001 achieved the highest ever attendance of any festival in the organisation's 23-year history. With 52 performances across seven venues attendances this year reached just over 36,000 representing an overall attendance of 84%.<P><BR>Dance Umbrella enquiry line: 020 8741 5881. Web-site <A HREF="http://www.danceumbrella.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>www.danceumbrella.co.uk</A> <P><BR>