”My Neighbour Totoro” and ”Standing at the Sky’s Edge” receive most nominations at 2023 Olivier Awards

The nominees for the 2023 Olivier Awards have been revealed, with the RSC’s stage adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro leading the pack with a total of nine nominations. Standing at the Sky’s Edge (currently running at the National Theatre until 25 March) is the most-nominated musical with eight nods.

Interestingly, Totoro is contending in the hybrid category of Best Entertainment or Comedy Play (rather than Best New Play) where it faces fierce competition from the Palladium panto (Jack and the Beanstalk) and two popular solo shows: Rob Madge’s My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) and Liz Kingsman’s One Woman Show.

Totoro was recognised in the categories of Best Director (for Phelim McDermott), Best Actress (for Mei Mac), Best Set Design (for Tom Pye), Best Costume Design (for Kimie Nakano), Best Lighting Design (for Jessica Hung Han Yun), Best Sound Design (for Tony Gayle) and Best Original Score or New Orchestrations (for Joe Hisaishi and Will Stuart). In addition, Basil Twist’s puppetry direction was also honoured in the Best Theatre Choreographer category.

Standing at the Sky’s Edge will go toe-to-toe with the Donmar’s The Band’s Visit, the Old Vic’s Sylvia and the Almeida’s Tammy Faye in the Best New Musical category, with Robert Hastie (Best Director), Faith Omole (Best Actress in a Musical), Maimuna Memon (Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical), Lynne Page (Best Theatre Choreographer), Ben Stones (Best Set Design), Bobby Aitken (Best Sound Design) and Richard Hawley and Tom Deering (Best Original Score or New Orchestrations) also receiving nominations.

The contenders for Best New Play are For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, Patriots, Prima Facie and To Kill A Mockingbird, while the nominees for Best Revival are The Crucible, Good, Jerusalem and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Best Musical Revival nods went to My Fair Lady, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (at the Young Vic), Sister Act and South Pacific.

The Oliviers continued their tradition of cast mates sharing an acting nomination with the company of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy – Mark Akintimehin, Emmanuel Akwafo, Nnabiko Ejimofor, Darragh Hand, Aruna Jalloh and Kaine Lawrence – all being recognised in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category.

Other high-profile names up for acting awards this year include the likes of Jodie Comer (Prima Facie), Paul Mescal (A Streetcar Named Desire), David Tennant (Good), Rafe Spall (To Kill a Mockingbird), Beverley Knight (Sylvia), Andrew Rannells (Tammy Faye), Tom Hollander (Patriots), Giles Terera (Blues for an Alabama Sky) and Nicola Walker (The Corn Is Green), among others.

Oklahoma! stars Arthur Darvill, Anoushka Lucas, Marisha Wallace and Liza Sadovy were all honoured in their respective acting categories, while Mescal’s fellow Streetcar cast mates Patsy Ferran and Anjana Vasan also received nominations.

Joining McDermott (My Neighbour Totoro) and Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) in the Best Director category are Justin Martin for (Prima Facie), Bartlett Sher (To Kill a Mockingbird) and last year’s winner Rebecca Frecknall (A Streetcar Named Desire).

You can read the FULL list of nominees here.