Bourne Again as Mary Poppins Co-director???

When the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award nominations were announced last week (See News, 20 Jan 2005), there was a rather strange anomaly concerning Mary Poppins. Amongst the musical’s grand haul of nine nominations, there was a Best Director nod, though solely for Richard Eyre, despite Matthew Bourne’s co-director status in all of the show’s promotional materials. On the day, Whatsonstage.com sought clarification from the awards press office, who confirmed that the nomination was indeed for Eyre alone and that “this credit has been approved by Cameron Mackintosh productions”. Bourne did receive a nod for Best Choreographer for the show, though he shared that nomination with his credited co-choreographer Stephen Mear. Subsequently, someone – though we can’t say whether it was at Mackintosh’s or the awards office – has obviously changed their mind as Bourne’s name has now been quietly inserted after Eyre’s in the Best Director list on the Olivier Awards website. We assume, should Mary Poppins triumph in that field on 20 February 2005, when the Oliviers are presented at the London Hilton, Bourne will also take to the stage with Eyre to accept. In any case, the correction means that Bourne shares with The Producers' Susan Stroman the distinction of receiving dual nominations for Director and Choreographer in this year’s awards.

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