Having a Larry: Musicals and the Olivier Awards

Now, I'm not one for award shows. 

That is, whenever I watch one, I can't help wondering what it would be like if all that congratulatory self-importance were to be directed at an industry that is actually essential - plumbing, say. Perhaps one day we'll see a bloke called Dave, clutching a golden u-bend and tearily thanking his parents for showing him the beautiful possibilities of a central heating system.

I'd definitely watch that.

But I only managed around twenty minutes of the Oliviers. Maybe I should have stuck it out for longer, given that I am a musical theatre fan. To be honest, I rather suspect that the reason I switched off was because I'm a musical theatre fan.

You see, musicals and the Oliviers have had a rocky relationship. Generally, the Oliviers like their musicals old and American. So, back in da heights of the Boubil/Schoenberg megamix era, the Oliviers plumped for the half-century-old Me and My Girl over Les Miz. A few years later, not to be outdone by their own nutty decisions, they made sure that Miss Saigon lost out to, er, nostalgia jukebox show Return to the Forbidden Planet.

Well, plus ca change, as Javert would say:

"Back to the Future was named was named best musical - one of the night's most competitive categories."

To be fair, at least that show has some original songs, unlike the majority of the nominees. Nothing against jukebox musicals but I wouldn't place them in the Best New Musical category any more than I would award Best New Band to a tribute act, no matter how good they were.

And, note, not a British show amongst the nominees.

"There were live performances throughout the night from the casts of shows including Moulin Rouge, Back to the Future, Drifters Girl, Frozen, Life of Pi, Anything Goes and Get Up, Stand Up"

So, to sum up. The premier awards for current British theatre chose to showcase mostly decades-old American songs written by dead people. Say what you like about Lord Andy's Cinderella but, had that show been nominated, at least the composer could have collected his award in person, on account of the fact that he still has a pulse. 

Whatever the future of British musical theatre is, one thing's for sure: it'll have little to do with the Oliviers.

Must All Have Prizes?

This sounds a bit iffy:

"Musical supervisors and orchestrators have secured a victory in their campaign to be honoured at the Olivier Awards, with next year’s ceremony set to include a brand new prize category for which they will be eligible.

Campaigners have been calling on the Society of London Theatre to honour musical directors/supervisors and orchestrators since 2011, with leading figures – including Mike Dixon and Gareth Valentine – calling the lack of a category honouring their peers a 'serious oversight'"

I'm all for honouring good musos. But isn't there a problem in campaigning for the instigation of an award when you're very likely to be a recipient of it?

"Now, SOLT has revealed plans to introduce an outstanding achievement in music category at next year’s ceremony, which it said 'will bring together potential nominations across the music fields' including 'composition of original music for plays, orchestration and musical supervision/direction'”. 

I suspect the looseness of the category will mean that this will become a kind of "special achievement" award, given to notable theatre musicians more for their body of work, rather than a genuinely competitive category. I'm not sure how a judge would weigh the comparative merits of orchestrations vs. musical direction vs. playing second fiddle. On the other hand, if it does end up raising the profile of these professionals, maybe that's no bad thing for musicals.

Then again when it comes to musicals I'm never sure how much the Oliviers actually matter (I suspect they generally matter more for subsidised than commercial theatre, hence the dismal lack of a Best Pantomime category). The return of Miss Saigon to the West End reminds me of how that show was inexplicably overlooked by the Oliviers in favour of Return to the Forbidden Planet, a jokey jukebox piece of campery set in outer space. What I didn't realise was that Les Miserables was also overlooked a few years earlier in favour of the 1930s musical retread Me and My Girl.

So, in summary: at the height of the global success of the West End musical, the main prize-giving body in the West End was bravely honouring pop nostalgia and half-a-century-old scores.

With a track record like that, who needs a Larry?

Why Don't Musicals Get the Credit They Deserve?

So asks Carrie Dunn on the Guardian website (although personally I wouldn't choose to illustrate my argument with a photo of Jason Donovan dressed as Carmen Miranda). This is in response to the Evening Standard Awards longlist:

"For the awards, both new works and revivals are lumped into a single category, Best Musical. This means that avant-garde innovations compete against tried-and-tested classics, with no rewards for new writing. The brilliant original rock score of Spring Awakening is up against the Open Air theatre's Hello, Dolly!, for instance."

Which is, of course, highly unfair. Hello Dolly!, being an old-fashioned musical comedy written in the mid-60s, is clearly the more radical and culturally transgressive. By comparison a rock musical written a few years ago is merely playing to the cultural mainstream. But I digress.

It is indeed curious. The Critics' Circle awards seem to do the same thing. Presumably the judges of these awards wouldn't think of pitting a new playwright's offering against a Tom Stoppard revival in the Best Play category. The Olivier awards do separate new musicals and revivals but, given that they once gave the gong to Return to the Forbidden Planet over Miss Saigon, they don't have the best track record. Compare this to Broadway's Tony awards which not only separates the awards for new musicals and revivals but also gives awards for Best Book and Best Score.

This shouldn't be too surprising. Broadway invented musicals and it's only right that they should understand and celebrate them the most. I suspect that most judges on British award panels would prefer not to have to spend their time weighing the theatrical merits of Priscilla Queen of the Desert against Never Forget - the Take That Musical. I can't say I really blame them. But to lump new musicals and revivals in the same category seems to deny that musicals even have authors who intentionally create them, as if they are just random happenings brought about by mere chance.

That's a very odd judging standard from the Evening Standard.