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Curated playlist

Laurence Olivier Award winners

  • Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway in 2023 after 13,981 performances.
  • Ian McKellenIan McKellen came out as gay on BBC radio in 1988, while Parliament weighed Section 28.
  • John GielgudJohn Gielgud was arrested months after being knighted. Backstage in Liverpool, he feared he could not face an audience.
  • Rachel WeiszRachel Weisz first made headlines in 1984 by saying no. She was a teenage model who had started working at the age of 14, and she turned down an offer to star in King David opposite Richard Gere. The British actress, born on the 7th of…
  • Anthony HopkinsAnthony Hopkins once delivered a seven-page courtroom speech in a single take on the set of Steven Spielberg's Amistad. The crew was astonished. Spielberg was so overawed that he could not bring himself to call the actor Tony, and he…
  • Tom HiddlestonTom Hiddleston is a British actor who once played Hamlet in a theatre of just 160 seats, with tickets given out by lottery to raise money for RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The run lasted three weeks in September 2017. Millions…
  • Eugene O'NeillPlaywright Eugene O'Neill was born in a hotel room and died in one. His last words were about that coincidence.
  • Benedict CumberbatchA play titled Benedict Cumberbatch Must Die was meant as a love letter to his fans.
  • Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
  • Maggie SmithOn the 1st of October 2024, theatres across the West End of London dimmed their lights for two minutes to honour Dame Maggie Smith. Broadway announced that its own theatres would follow with the same gesture. Few performers earn a tribute…
  • Judi DenchJudi Dench won an Oscar for a role that lasted about eight minutes. She played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
  • Jonathan PryceA drama school tutor said Jonathan Pryce would only play villains on Z-Cars. He was knighted in 2021.
  • Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness privately called Star Wars "fairy-tale rubbish" in letters to friends.
  • Rosamund PikeRosamund Pike, the English actress and producer, was turned down by every stage school she applied to. She went on to win a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. Between those two points lies a career built on women who are hard to…
  • Jessie BuckleyJessie Buckley, an Irish actress and singer born on the 28th of December 1989, became the first Irish winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won it in 2026 for playing Agnes Shakespeare in the period drama Hamnet. The win closed…
  • Bryan CranstonIn 1968, a 12-year-old Bryan Cranston was riding horses with his cousin at Spahn Ranch when he met Charles Manson. About a year later, Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders. Cranston grew up to become an American actor and filmmaker…
  • Willy RussellWilly Russell left school at fifteen to become a women's hairdresser. He later wrote Educating Rita and Blood Brothers.
  • Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on the 26th of July 1945, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London. Neither the first name nor the surname on that record would last. The woman who…
  • Patrick StewartPatrick Stewart grew a moustache for Macbeth and saw his father's face in the mirror.
  • Tom StoppardTom Stoppard arrived in England knowing not a word of Czech. He fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia as a child.
  • Rowan AtkinsonRowan Atkinson played one synthesizer note, over and over, at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The moment came during a performance of "Chariots of Fire". Atkinson appeared as Mr. Bean, and the single note soon…
  • Kevin SpaceyLate in the 1995 thriller Se7en, Kevin Spacey walks into the story as the serial killer John Doe, and most of the audience had no idea he was coming. His name was missing from the opening credits. It was missing from the film's…
  • Nicole ScherzingerIn August 2003, Nicole Scherzinger walked into the Arista Records office in New York carrying a demo CD of songs she had written herself. She was performing under her Hawaiian family name, Nicole Kea, and she wanted a solo recording…
  • Paul MescalPaul Mescal was born in Dublin on the 2nd of February 1996. As a teenager, he was a defender for Kildare, first at minor level and then at under-21 level. A physical trainer named Cian O'Neill once described the young player as "mature…
  • Barbara DicksonBarbara Dickson had never acted professionally, and she first turned down the musical Blood Brothers.
  • Jonathan BaileyJonathan Bailey was five years old when his grandmother took him to see Oliver! in London, and that single outing settled what he wanted to do with his life. His first ever appearance on a stage came in a primary school production of…

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