2024’s Olivier awards remain too white, too male – and too safe

A string of seven awards for Sunset Boulevard was hardly radical, and many more daring theatrical successes went unrewarded

The triumph of Jamie Lloyd’s reinvented Sunset Boulevard at this year’s Olivier awards seemed to send a positive signal to those who seek to show some daring in the West End. After scooping seven awards, the musical can certainly rest assured that it will make its transfer to Broadway on a high. Yet even with its technical dazzle and powerful performances, I’m not entirely convinced. Arising from the hugely commercial (and slightly cheesy?) Andrew Lloyd Webber stable with A-list casting in Nicole Scherzinger, who was named best actress in a musical, I was left wondering: how radical or risky is that, exactly?

Brian Cox, while presenting the best play award to James Graham for Dear England, said he had never seen British theatre doing better. As much as I admire Cox’s elderman wisdom, I question that it is in a roaring state. It has cleaved to safety since the pandemic pause and seems willing only to take risks now within the relatively safe bounds of revivals, film adaptations and big-name castings.

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