{"id":12233,"date":"2026-04-12T10:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/12233\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T10:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:18:23","slug":"paddington-bear-among-the-contenders-at-londons-olivier-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/12233\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddington Bear among the contenders at London’s Olivier Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Cate Blanchett<\/a>, Bryan Cranston<\/a> and Paddington Bear are among the contenders on Sunday at London\u2019s Olivier Awards<\/a>, which celebrate achievements in theater, opera and dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cTed Lasso\u201d star Nick Mohammed<\/a> hosts the 50th anniversary edition of the awards at a star-studded ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, where Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Williams and Andrew Lloyd Webber will be among the trophy presenters.<\/p>\n

Leading the nominations for Britain\u2019s equivalent of Broadway\u2019s Tony Awards<\/a>, with 11 apiece, are homegrown heart-warmer \u201cPaddington: The Musical\u201d and a much-praised revival of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s twisted fairy tale journey \u201cInto the Woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting nominees include Marianne-Jean Baptiste, Paapa Essiedu, Rosamund Pike, Tom Hiddleston, Blanchett \u2014 for playing a vain actor in Anton Chekhov\u2019s \u201cThe Seagull\u201d \u2014 and Cranston for his performance as a troubled patriarch in Arthur Miller\u2019s \u201cAll My Sons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The category of best actor in a musical includes a joint nomination for James Hameed and Arti Shah, who together play the titular marmalade-loving Peruvian bear in \u201cPaddington.\u201d Hameed provides the voice and remote puppetry, while Shah inhabits the bear costume onstage.<\/p>\n

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The ceremony will include performances from nominated musicals and numbers marking two significant anniversaries: 40 years of Lloyd Webber\u2019s \u201cPhantom of the Opera,\u201d and 20 years of \u201cWicked\u201d in the West End.<\/p>\n

Stage star Elaine Paige, who is known for her leading roles in hit musicals including \u201cCats,\u201d \u201cEvita,\u201d \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d and \u201cPiaf,\u201d will receive this year\u2019s Special Award.<\/p>\n

The Olivier Awards were founded in 1976 and named after the late actor-director Laurence Olivier. The winners are chosen by voting groups of stage professionals and theatergoers.<\/p>\n

London\u2019s West End is celebrating a strong post-pandemic return, buoyed by new musicals such as \u201cPaddington\u201d and \u201cThe Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,\u201d and revivals including director Jamie Lloyd\u2019s bold staging of \u201cEvita.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Society of London Theatre, an industry umbrella group, says ticket sales have surpassed the levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. Shows in the West End \u2014 the collective name for London\u2019s theaterland \u2014 attracted 17.6 million visitors in 2025, 3 million more than Broadway.<\/p>\n

But there are concerns about rising ticket prices and soaring production budgets, fueled by higher costs for labor, materials and energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheaters are busier than ever, but many are operating with far less financial headroom,\u201d the society said in a report published last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Cate Blanchett, Bryan Cranston and Paddington Bear are among the contenders on Sunday at London\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[5799,5812,5813,5795,5796,451,5808,5805,103,44,5807,5802,5800,5804,5814,5806,5801,5810,27,5811,5798,5816,5817,5809,5815,5797,5803,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-12233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-andrew-lloyd-webber","9":"tag-anton-chekhov","10":"tag-arthur-miller","11":"tag-bryan-cranston","12":"tag-cate-blanchett","13":"tag-celebrity","14":"tag-dance","15":"tag-elaine-paige","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-harold-fry","19":"tag-helen-mirren","20":"tag-ian-mckellen","21":"tag-international-news","22":"tag-james-hameed","23":"tag-jamie-lloyd","24":"tag-jean-baptiste","25":"tag-laurence-olivier","26":"tag-london","27":"tag-musicals","28":"tag-nick-mohammed","29":"tag-paapa-essiedu","30":"tag-rosamund-pike","31":"tag-royalty","32":"tag-stephen-sondheim","33":"tag-tom-hiddleston","34":"tag-vanessa-williams","35":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116391228363684070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}