Olivier Awards 2020: the winners in numbers

Individual accolades

9 – Number of Olivier awards won by choreographer Matthew Bourne, who now is the most decorated individual winner in Olivier Awards history, surpassing Judi Dench’s eight statues. This year, Bourne took home best theatre choreographer alongside Stephen Mear for their work on Mary Poppins. The pair won the same award for Mary Poppins when it premiered in the West End in 2004.

5 – Olivier awards won by lighting designer Paule Constable, who picked up her fifth this year for The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre.

4 – A show by producer Sonia Friedman has won best new play for the fourth year running, with Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt taking home the award this year. It follows 2019’s The Inheritance, 2018’s The Ferryman and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2017.

3 – Olivier awards won by Sharon D Clarke. In 2020, she became the first person to be nominated in all four female acting categories, and has now won in three of them: best actress in a play for Death of a Salesman (2020), best supporting actress in a play for The Amen Corner (2014) and best actress in a musical for Caroline, Or Change (2018).

Year-on-year changes

13 – Awards for productions that originated in subsidised or not-for-profit theatres. The list includes five wins for Emilia and Present Laughter, which began life at the not-for-profit venues Shakespeare’s Globe and the Old Vic.

13 – The same number of awards was won this year for commercial productions, with winners including & Juliet, Leopoldstadt, Fiddler on the Roof and Mary Poppins.

14 – Awards for commercial productions in 2019, compared with 12 for shows that began in subsidised and not-for-profit theatres.

4 – Awards for women in individual non-gendered categories. They included Paule Constable for best lighting design for The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Emilia costume and sound designers Joanna Scotcher and Emma Laxton and Death of a Salesman co-directors Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell.

2 – Awards for men in individual non-gendered categories, which went to Mary Poppins’ choreographers Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear and set designer Bob Crowley, also for Mary Poppins.

3 – Last year, women and men each won three awards in individual, non-gendered categories. The previous year, only one was won by a woman.

2 – Awards for shows at the Royal Opera House, with wins for best new opera production Billy Budd and Ballet Black’s Ingoma, performed at ROH, which won best new dance production.

1 – Award for the National Theatre – for Paule Constable’s lighting in The Ocean at the End of the Lane – equalling the theatre’s total for 2019.

Omissions

0 – Awards for Rosmersholm, from five nominations.

0 – Awards for Uncle Vanya, from four nominations.

0 – Awards for Amélie the Musical, from three nominations.