The 2024 Olivier Awards are expected to play host to Hollywood stars and TV actors as nominees walk the competition’s green carpet.
Former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger and Succession actress Sarah Snook are set to attend the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, along with well-known UK actors Joseph Fiennes, James Norton and David Tennant and Irish star Andrew Scott.
Scherzinger, who had a critically acclaimed performance as a Hollywood star spiralling into mental illness in Sunset Boulevard at London’s Savoy Theatre, is up for the best actress in a musical gong – with Celebrity Big Brother star Marisha Wallace for Guys & Dolls among her competitors.
The US actress has already been honoured as best performer in a musical at the WhatsOnStage Awards and received an similar gong at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her role in the Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which this year has 11 Olivier nominations in total.
The production is based on the 1950s black comedy of the same name, where the character Norma Desmond utters the well-known line “Right, Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up” in reference to a director she imagines.
Scherzinger’s Sunset Boulevard co-star Tom Francis is up for the equivalent male prize, which also features nominations for Fisherman’s Friends star Daniel Mays for Guys & Dolls.
In the best actor category, The Handmaid’s Tale star Fiennes, who played England manager Gareth Southgate in Dear England, faces competition from Sherlock star Gatiss for Jack Thorne’s The Motive And The Cue, Happy Valley’s Norton for his role in A Little Life, Doctor Who star and Scottish actor Tennant for Macbeth and Fleabag actor Scott for Vanya.
Scott, who was in a one-man version of an adaptation of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s family drama Uncle Vanya, has previously won the prize for his role in Present Laughter while Norton has never before been nominated before his starring role in the stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s Booker Prize-nominated novel.
The best actress category features Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker for Plaza Suite, Snook for The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Gavin & Stacey actress Sheridan Smith for Shirley Valentine, The Fall actress Laura Donnelly for The Hills Of California and Hotel Rwanda actress Sophie Okonedo for Medea.
Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham returns to host the event, which will see performances from best new musical nominees including The Little Big Things, Next To Normal, Operation Mincemeat and A Strange Loop, alongside best musical revival nominees Guys & Dolls and Hadestown.
Waddingham will open the event with singer and pianist Joe Stilgoe, and the ceremony’s finale will mark the National Theatre’s 60th anniversary. Baron Laurence Olivier founded the theatre.
Presenters include The Morning Show star Billy Crudup, Carnival Row actress Cara Delevingne, former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, comedian Sir Lenny Henry, Gavin & Stacey actress Ruth Jones, singer Beverley Knight, Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin, Good Omens actor Michael Sheen, and The Crown star Dominic West.
Goodness Gracious Me star Meera Syal will perform the ceremony’s voiceover.
The Olivier Awards’ highlight programme airs on ITV1 from 10.10pm on Sunday.