Olivier awards 2026: it’s the year of the musical

The theatre, said Laurence Olivier, was a “glamoriser of thought” – an outward expression of an “inward and probable culture”. What does it say of our present moment, then, that the biggest productions of the year are about fairytales and a Peruvian bear? Into the Woods and Paddington, both glorious examples of the musical’s power to enchant, lead this year’s Olivier awards with 11 nominations each. Elsewhere, life informs the nominations list – senseless acts of violence, women coming apart, men making mistakes – but sometimes the culture longs for escape, maybe even innocence. The heart wants what it wants – so it is with the cuddly teddy.

The Oliviers turn 50 this year: have they ever looked in such rude health? The ceremony will be hosted by Nick Mohammed at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 April, broadcast on the BBC for the first time in 20 years. So it celebrates, like the list of nominees, the happy mingling of stage and screen – Bryan Cranston, Cate Blanchett, Rachel Zegler, Sean Hayes, all of Hollywood fame – while the best of British talent, from Tom Hiddleston and Paapa Essiedu to Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Rosamund Pike, is on full display. These names are only part of West End’s draw for theatergoers – more than 17 million of them in 2024, according to the most recent available data, outnumbering fans at Premier League matches. Add to those the thousands who turned out night after night last summer to see Zegler sing from the Palladium balcony as Evita, and it is clear that a 2 sq km patch of this often grey and dreary island is still, truly, an exciting attraction.

Zegler is the frontrunner for best actress in a musical; her male costar, Diego Andres Rodriguez, will likely be beaten to the actor award by the bear. Weirdly, wonderfully and, above all deservedly, Arti Shah (a woman) and James Hameed, the human embodiment of Paddington, find themselves both nominated for best actor in a musical. For best supporting actress in a musical, look no further than the flinty, funny, phenomenal Kate Fleetwood, who was the cold heart of Jordan Fein’s Into the Woods. Rosamund Pike, nominated in the best actress category, was similarly forceful in Suzie Miller’s legal drama Inter Alia: hers is a fiercely contested category also featuring Julia McDermott (Weather Girl), Jean-Baptiste and Blanchett (both astonishing in All My Sons and The Seagull respectively), and Rosie Sheehy, surely one of the finest theatre actors of her generation. She gave a terrifying, hilarious, exhilarating performance in Guess How Much I Love You? alongside Robert Aramayo, who last month triumphed over the A-listers to win a surprise Bafta for best actor. Could it be auspicious?

Cranston, Jean-Baptiste, Essiedu and Hayley Squires are all nominated for All My Sons: not just a star vehicle, but a best revival contender that brought to Arthur Miller’s 1947 a bitter present-day resonance (director Ivo van Hove is nominated for his treatment of this story of shattered American idealism). Also with six nominations each are Kenrex and Stereophonic. The former is a new work co-created by British theatremakers Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian; the latter another new work by David Adjmi transferred from Broadway. Kenrex, a one-man thriller about a real-life Missouri man’s campaign of terror and killing by vigilantes, sees Jack Holden nominated for best actor as the larger-than-life protagonists in a tiny town, population 400; the play, which opened at Sheffield Theatres, is also entered in the best director category (Ed Stambollouian), as well as best lighting design (Joshua Pharo), best sound design (Giles Thomas), and outstanding musical contribution (John Patrick Elliott). Kenrex premieres off-Broadway in April: transatlantic trade ticks along nicely in the theatre world, at least.

Stereophonic, the recipient of five Tony awards, turned the subject of artistic tribulation into an artistic triumph, and rightly wins nominations for Lucy Karczewski, and best supporting actor for the charismatic Zachary Hart (who is double-nominated in this category, also for The Seagull), as well as costume design (Enver Chakartash), sound design (Ryan Rumery) and musical contribution (Arcade Fire’s Will Butler and Justin Craig). Lastly, a best-set nomination goes to David Zinn, whose mid-century masterpiece – comfy and classy, unbearably claustrophobic – was exactly the kind of space you’d want to hunker down in, which, given Stereophonic’s 3hr 15-minute runtime, was a prerequisite.

But this year, the playwright is the thing – in an outstanding showcase of new writing. James Graham’s Punch did indeed pack the proverbial, with its searing real-life redemption story of a Nottingham teenager who killed a man with one blow (its star David Shields is also nominated for best actor). In a crowded field, Miller’s feminist drama about a female judge inched out two fine Royal Court productions – Guess How Much I Love You? and Porn Play – as well as Romans: A Novel, by Alice Birch, at the Almeida. Ava Pickett’s curious, darkly comic 1536, a historical drama set in the year Anne Boleyn was put to death, transfers to the West End for a short run in May and has been picked up by the BBC for a TV series, to be co-produced by Margot Robbie. Not, perhaps, the glamoriser of thought Olivier had in mind, but a glamoriser all the same.

The Observer is proud to be the official media partner of the Olivier Awards with Cunard for the 50th anniversary year

Photographs by Johan Persson, Marc Brenner