Olivier Award Success for “Potter” Alumni

Last night, the annual Olivier Awards, which celebrate achievements in theater, took place in London, UK. The night saw huge success for Imelda Staunton (Professor Umbridge), alongside some other familiar names.

Dame Judi Dench, who starred alongside and was directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh (Professor Lockhart) in The Winter’s Tale, was honored with a Best Supporting Actress award for her performance, her eighth Olivier. Dench is the first person to win eight individual performance Olivier Awards, an amazing achievement. The production was produced by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company.

Dench spoke about being a part of the production.

Everybody says what a wonderful time they have doing something. I can truly say that in [T]he Winter’s Tale it was an absolutely memorable family.

Imelda Staunton’s Gypsy walked away with the most awards of the night, taking home four awards. Staunton herself took home an award for Best Actress in a Musical. The company opened the show with a performance of a song from the show, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” On the success of the production she said,

We felt we were doing something special every night, and every night we went out and wanted to do a better show than the night before.

The show also took home awards for Best Musical Revival, Best Lighting Design, and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.

Best New Play went to Hangmen by Martin McDonagh, who also wrote The Cripple of Inishmaan, in which Daniel Radcliffe recently starred. The play also picked up Best Set Design.

You can read more about the awards here.

Were you pleased with the results? Did you get to see Gypsy or The Winter’s Tale? Let us know in the comments!