Olivier Awards 2025: the results

After nominations were released last month, the long-anticipated results for the 2025 Olivier Awards have finally been announced during the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted this year by Beverley Knight and Billy Porter. Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Jordan Fein, led this year’s awards with 13 nominations, including Best Musical Revival and Best Actress. Other highly nominated productions included Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, with six nominations, as well as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Oliver!, both of which received four nominations. We saw five productions nominated for Best New Play: The Fear of 13, Giant, Kyoto, Shifters, and The Years. However, Giant and The Years tied as the most nominated plays, each with five nominations.

For the most dedicated of us, however, a ‘highlights’ show was available to watch on ITV from 10:00pm on the night

Unfortunately, the awards ceremony is unavailable to watch live in the UK, although theatre-lovers could keep updated through the Instagram as well as a frequently updated Whatsonstage page. For the most dedicated of us, however, a ‘highlights’ show was available to watch on ITV from 10:00pm on the night, so, naturally, I tuned into that the next morning.

With multiple shows receiving more than one nomination, there was a lot of tension as to who was to swoop the most wins of the night, though having now watched it, it was satisfyingly varied.

In terms of plays, The Giant took the lead with three awards, including Best New Play and Best Actor in John Lithgow. Other winners were Oedipus and The Years, each with two wins.

For dance with only two categories, Eva Yerbabuena won Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her performance in Yerbagüena, and Assembly Hall by Kidd Pivot, Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young took Best New Dance Production. Opera similarly had two categories and saw Festen by the Royal Opera win Best New Opera Production, and Allan Clayton win Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his performance in Festen.

Recordings of all of these outstanding performances can now be watched on the Official London Theatre YouTube channel

Musical theatre is perhaps the focus and most anticipated moment of the night, with performances from various productions scattered throughout the night. Audiences were lucky enough to see a performance from our hosts – Beverley Knight and Billy Porter – of ‘Luck be a Lady’, followed throughout by performances from a glorious lineup: Fiddler on the Roof, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, MJ the Musical, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Why Am I So Single?, Oliver!, Starlight Express, and, finally, a 40^th anniversary performance from Les Misérables. Recordings of all of these outstanding performances can now be watched on the Official London Theatre YouTube channel.

Out of its 13 nominations, Fiddler on the Roof won three awards including Best Musical Revival. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button also won three, including for Best New Musical, and Oliver!, two. Many very deserving individual performers also won such as Maimuna Memon as Best Supporting Actress in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 for her role of Sonya (a role she reprised for the Olivier performance) and Layton Williams for Titanique.

You can catch up with the awards ceremony on ITV, as well as all of the musical performances being available to watch on YouTube.