Martine's Olivier Chances Anger Audiences???

Yesterday's announcement of the 2002 Laurence Olivier Nominations held a few surprises, not least the inclusion of My Fair Lady's erstwhile Eliza Doolittle Martine McCutcheon in the running for Best Actress in a Musical. Whatsonstage.com has been inundated with messages on the matter, via both email and the Discussion Forum. Many theatregoers have expressed shock at the "travesty", while others have questioned whether the pop star should legitimately be eligible for nomination given her record of no-shows. McCutcheon fell ill during National Theatre previews for Trevor Nunn's revival of Lerner and Loewe's classic and, by the end of the show’s South Bank run, had performed fewer times than her understudy Alexandra Jay. She continued to suffer health-related problems following the summer transfer to the West End's Theatre Royal Drury Lane and was replaced in December by Joanna Riding. Although the unreliability of her appearances meant that relatively few theatregoers managed to see McCutcheon in the role, many of those who did say that her performance was well worthy of awards recognition. We await the judgement of the Olivier panel next month!

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