The 2025 oliviers: small is beautiful | thearticle

There weren’t many surprises at the 2025 Olivier Awards. That’s not to say the winners didn’t deserve their awards. John Lithgow has received huge critical acclaim for his performance as

Roald Dahl in _Giant_, Imelda Staunton has had a terrific run over the past few years and won huge standing ovations for _Hello Dolly!_ and Lesley Manville was terrific as Jocasta in Robert

Icke’s award-winning production of _Oedipus. Fiddler on the Roof_, which is about to transfer to the Barbican next month, _ _received thirteen Olivier nominations, equalling a record set by

the musical _Hamilton _in 2018. It was also hardly surprising that one of the actresses in _The Years_ won an award. It’s worth noting that neither the National Theatre nor the Old Vic nor

the Coliseum won any Oliviers. The National Theatre has not fared well under Rufus Norris, after the golden years under Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner. Norris’s

production of _Nye_ was astonishingly bad and it’s hard to believe that it’s going to be revived. What was especially disappointing about the 2025 Oliviers was how much it was dominated by

the West End, whether musicals like _The Comic Case of Benjamin Button, Hello Dolly! Titanique _or _MJ The Musical_, classics like _Oedipus,_ or exciting new plays like _Giant_ and _The

Years_. Some of the best plays I have seen in the past year, however, have appeared at small theatres like the Southwark Playhouse and the Park Theatre. Kenneth Tigar gave a brilliant

performance in a one-man show, _The Happiest Man on Earth_, as the Auschwitz survivor, Eddie Jaku, and deserved his standing ovation from a packed house. _Farewell, Mr. Haffmann_, at the

Park Theatre, is set in occupied Paris, is full of twists and turns and menace, and beautifully performed by a small cast. The Finborough Theatre in Earls Court staged the world premiere of

a new adaptation of _The Passenger _by Nadya Menuhin, based on the bestselling novel by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, and directed by multi-award-winning former artistic director of the Young

Vic, Tim Supple, for five weeks from 10 February–15 March 2025. Perhaps best of all was another one-man show, this time at Riverside Studios: _Second Best_ starring Asa Butterfield, best

known from the TV series, _Sex Education_. It was his stage debut and was an absolute _tour de force_ playing to packed houses. None of these plays are classics like _Oedipus_, none are

famous musicals like _Hello, Dolly! _or _Fiddler on the Roof_, and apart from Butterfield there were no stars to be seen to compare with John Lithgow or Imelda Staunton, Adrien Brody, Mark

Strong or Romola Garai, nor famous characters like Roald Dahl, Michael Jackson or Tevye. In a moving speech on Radio 4’s _Today _programme on Monday morning, Lesley Manville called for

better funding for regional theatres (“Over the years I have seen theatre by theatre by theatre close. It’s tragic.”) and for more leading actors to follow in the footsteps of Sir Ian

McKellen, Ralph Fiennes and Roger Allam, touring the country and bringing audiences to regional theatres. The same is true of small independent theatres in London. One major step would be

for the Olivier Awards to recognise ambitious new productions in theatres like The Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios. The latter launched _Operation Mincemeat, _which is now playing

to packed houses both on Broadway and in the West End. Do we really need more awards for _Starlight Express_ or for musicals based on movies like _The Curious Case of Benjamin Button_?

Perhaps it’s time for the Oliviers to create new awards: for best productions at a small independent theatre and at a regional theatre. The publicity might bring bigger audiences to less

well-known theatres — without which the West End would wither away. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important

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