Olivier Awards 2026 – Paddington and Into The Woods tie most nominations

The Olivier Awards, with Cunard, have revealed the 2026 nominees! Now in their 50th year, the annual awards ceremony will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 April 2026 with Nick Mohammed making his debut as the evening’s host.

Musicals led the way this year, with a largely two-way race between Paddington The Musical and Into The Woods, both of which received 11 nominations. Meanwhile, three plays tied with six nominations each: All My Sons, Kenrex and Stereophonic.

It was a big year for double nominees. Sean Hayes (Best Actor and Outstanding Musical Contribution), Georgina Onuorah (Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical and Best Actress in a Musical, shared with Danielle Fiamanya) and Tom Scutt (Best Costume Design and Best Set Design) are nominated across two categories each, whilst Zachary Hart received a double-nomination in the same category for his supporting roles in Stereophonic and The Seagull.

It was, predictably, a Peruvian bear with Jessica Swale and Tom Fletcher‘s stage adaptation of Paddington, directed by nominee Luke Sheppard, that impressed across technical and performer categories. Notably, in the Costume Design category, both Gabriella Slade (who designed the costumes) and Tahra Zafar (who designed the bear) are jointly nominated, whereas Tom Pye (set design) and Ash J Woodward (video design) are nominated in Best Set Design, despite Into the Woods creatives Aideen Malone (lighting design) and Roland Horvath (video design) falling into Best Lighting Design.

Jordan Fein’s revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical Into The Woods also saw nods for performers: Jamie Parker, Katie Brayben, Jo Foster, Oliver Savile and Kate Fleetwood, all contributing to the Best Musical Revival nomination. Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, received its European premiere at the National Theatre, and is now nominated for Best New Musical, actress Jane Krakowski and supporting actress Tracie Bennett.

Another big revival was Ivo van Hove’s revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which sees Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Bryan Cranston, Hayley Squires and Paapa Essiedu all nominated for their performances, alongside Hove’s direction.

Stereophonic didn’t reach the stratospheric record-breaking heights in the West End as it did on Broadway, but did still end up with six nominations – matching the totals earned by other frontrunners All My Sons and Kenrex. Onuorah’s Lola in Shucked (a role that earned Alex Newell the Tony) received its flowers for the show-stopping “Independently Owned,” and Hayes may well repeat his Tony success at the Oliviers. In contrast, Oh, Mary! is up for two awards: Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play, a fun-filled category won in the past by Titanique and Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and for Giles Terera‘s take on Mary’s Wife.

Excitingly, both producers, Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin, are nominated for their performances in the Menier Chocolate Factory revival up and running at the Garrick. In a similar vein, the two performers who bring Paddington Bear to life, Arti Shah and James Hameed, have been jointly nominated in the Best Actor in a Musical category. It feels like a precedent has been set following the win of the multiple actors who played the tiger Richard Parker in Life of Pi, with the onus being on the gender of the character.

While the bear received a lot of love, so did the underdogs. Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian’s Kenrex is up for Best New Play, Holden’s performance, direction by Stambollouian, Joshua Pharo’s lighting, Giles Thomas’ sound design and John Patrick Elliott’s compositions. In the Best Actress category, Julia McDermott has received a nod for Weather Girl at Soho Theatre, as has Rosie Sheehy for Guess How Much I Love You? at Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at Royal Court Theatre – for her second year on the trot. It wasn’t only the bear whose performance has been applauded in Paddington The Musical’s comedy duo, Tom Edden and Amy Booth-Steel, both received nominations, as did the villainous Millicent Clyde, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt.

In terms of new musicals, the bear is up against Sondheim’s last musical, the corny Shucked, and Passenger and Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. While the race for Best New play is between Ava Pickett’s 1536, Suzie Miller’s Inter Alia, Holden and Stambollouian’s Kenrex and James Graham’s Punch. Revivals-wise, the return of American Psycho also picked up recognition for its choreography by Lynne Page.

Jamie Lloyd‘s Much Ado About Nothing received two nominations – for Best Play Revival and for Tom Hiddleston‘s performance. His summer musical Evita fared better with five nods, including Best Musical revival and leads Diego Andres Rodriguez and Rachel Zegler. Other starry names include Rosamund Pike (Inter Alia) and Cate Blanchett (who led Duncan Macmillan and Thomas Ostermeier’s nominated adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull).

Read the list of nominees in full.