Olivier Awards, unlike the last two years, will be happening in person. The 2022 Olivier Awards nominees have just been announced. ‘Cabaret’, currently running at the Kit Kat club at the Playhouse theater has bagged the most nominations at 11. Lolita Chakrabarti’s ‘Life of Pie’ has bagged nine nominations. Along with great theater practitioners, two big movie names have also been nominated this time. Both, Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, have been nominated in the lead acting in a Musical category for their Musical ‘Cabaret at the Kit Kat club’.
What Is The Connection Between This Year’s Olivier Awards And Hollywood?
Several of the plays and Musicals have been produced as films in America. Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pie’ has been adapted into a movie by Ang Lee. It bagged 11 Oscar nominations, winning four of them. So, it is not a surprise that Lolita Chakrabarti’s theater adaptation is also making a huge buzz. Other than this, ‘Frozen’ is nominated in many Musical categories. A Hollywood animated film of the same name won many awards at the awards circuit that year, including two Oscars. ‘The Normal Heart’ has also been recognized and nominated for various awards this year. A TV movie of the same name was released in 2014 with Mark Ruffalo in the lead, it also featured the famous ‘Big Bang Theory’ actor Jim Parsons. Other classic plays like Moulin Rouge, Back to the Future, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Hamlet that have been profoundly expressed through the art of films too, have bagged nominations for their theatrical versions.
What Does Lolita Chakrabarti Think Of ‘Life of Pie’?
Lolita Chakrabarti’s ‘Life of Pie’ is also attracting the audience’s attention due to its use of puppetry. Seven cast members who play the role of the Tiger in the play have been nominated for the best acting in a supporting role category. While talking about the adaptation with ayoungertheatre.com, Lolita said: ‘I enjoyed the book so much I never questioned the dramatic structure or the story of it. I just thought, ‘that works’. The challenges arose when adapting the piece for the stage. The book is in large part narrated by Pi himself and is subject to his version of events. In structuring it into a three-hour theatre piece, it needs to pack a punch that’s different from the book. In adapting it, I had to give purpose, reason, and action to everything on stage. That was a real challenge.’
How Did Eddie Redmayne Land In ‘Cabaret’?
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Eddie Redmayne’s role in ‘Cabaret’ is also being applauded. ‘Cabaret’ itself is a very hard-hitting play, it is not the usual feel-good musical. It explores one of the darkest times in history when Nazism was coming to power in Germany. Eddie Redmayne was very eager to play this role, while talking to Vogue, he said: ‘Anxiety is something that drives me. It has for a long time. Ultimately, I think, you only live once. If it’s a catastrophe, I got to play a part that always felt unfinished in me. If I don’t do it, then perhaps I will just live with regret.’
‘I’d seen Cabaret done formidably. I’d seen the film and Sam Mendes’s production. The only point in us doing it would be if we could do something different from those other productions, something new.’- Eddie Redmayne said about the novelty of the Musical.
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Both Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley have admired the director of the play, Rebecca Frecknall. Frecknall, apart from keeping the crux of the play intact, brings her own new ideas and creative synergies to the play. ‘I am always interested in how you can tell this fresh. There are a lot of things bubbling up: politics, gender, hierarchies, stereotyping, the human fear of otherness and difference, and how that can be weaponized. Eddie brings an angle to it that’s unexpected.’- she says while talking to Vogue
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Another important aspect of the play is Jessie Buckley’s character, who herself is an Oscar nominee like Redmayne and has grabbed a nomination for her performance in ‘Cabaret’. ‘I feel it’s like a blank canvas, a chance to go back to the theater and fall in love, which I haven’t done since my first job. It was so far away from where I grew up, a world of secrets. For Eddie, it’s a passion project, and I was delighted he thought of me,’- she says about her role and being a part of the Musical.
Olivier Awards are considered to be of the highest honors for theater dignitaries in Britain. They can be compared to the Tony Awards in America. The Olivier Awards 2022 ceremony will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 10.
