Matilda breaks Olivier Awards record
16th April 2012 - 1:40pm
The stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda has broken the record for most prizes won at the Olivier Awards, with the Royal Shakespeare Company production scooping seven gongs at this year's ceremony.
Matilda: The Musical beat the previous record of six awards at one ceremony, set by Nicholas Nickleby in 1980, with the show's lyricist and songwriter Tim Minchin collecting the coveted best new musical prize.
The production also won awards for choreography, sound design and set design, while Matthew Warchus picked up the best director prize.
The best actress in a musical award was shared between the four young actresses who play Matilda - Cleo Demetriou, Kerry Ingram, Sophia Kiely and Eleanor Worthington Cox – while Bertie Carvel picked up the best actor in a musical prize, for his cross-dressing portrayal of the fearsome Miss Trunchbull.
It is the third time in five years that the best actor award has been won by a man in a cross-dressing role, after Douglas Hodge triumphed in 2009 for La Cage Aux Folles and Michael Ball scooped the 2008 award for his portrayal of Hairspray's Edna Turnbland.
Other winners on the night included Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, who shared the best actor prize for their alternating performances as Frankenstein and the Monster in Danny Boyle's stage adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, while the Donmar Warehouse's production of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie was named best revival.