Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Contribution

Laurence Olivier Award
for Best Outstanding Musical Contribution
Laurence Olivier Award; for Best Outstanding Musical Contribution
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First awarded	2014
Currently held by	Alan Williams for Sunset Boulevard (2024)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

The Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Contribution is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.

This award was introduced in 2014 as Outstanding Achievement in Music, and was renamed to Best Original Score or New Orchestrations from 2020 to 2023.

Since 2024, the award was given its current name and reconfigured to honor librettists (book, lyrics and score) alongside Best New Musical, while other music elements (arrangements, music direction, music supervision and orchestrations) honored in this category.^[1]

Winners and nominees

2010s

Year	Production	Recipient
2014
	Once	Martin Lowe, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
	Merrily We Roll Along	The Orchestra
	The Book of Mormon	Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
	The Scottsboro Boys	John Kander and Fred Ebb
2015
	Sunny Afternoon	Ray Davies
	Beautiful	The Orchestra
	Here Lies Love	David Byrne and Fatboy Slim
	Memphis	David Bryan, Joe DiPietro, Tim Sutton and the Band
2016
	In the Heights	Lin-Manuel Miranda
	Bend It Like Beckham	Howard Goodall, Charles Hart and Kuljit Bhamra
	Farinelli and the King	Claire van Kampen, the Orchestra, Iestyn Davies and the Farinelli Singers
	Kinky Boots	Cyndi Lauper and Stephen Oremus
2017
	School of Rock	Three children's bands who play live every night
	Dreamgirls	Henry Krieger
	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	Imogen Heap
	Jesus Christ Superstar	The Band and Company
2018
	Hamilton	Alex Lacamoire and Lin-Manuel Miranda
	Everybody's Talking About Jamie	Dan Gillespie Sells
	Follies	The orchestra, under the musical supervision of Nicholas Skilbeck and music director Nigel Lilley
	Girl from the North Country	Bob Dylan and Simon Hale
2019
	Come from Away	David Hein, Irene Sankoff, Ian Eisendrath, August Eriksmoen, Alan Berry and the Band
	A Monster Calls	Benji Bower and Will Bower
	Fun Home	Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
	The Inheritance	Paul Englishby
	Six	Joe Beighton, Tom Curran, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

2020s

Year	Production	Recipient
2020
	Dear Evan Hansen	Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul
	Waitress	Sara Bareilles
	Fiddler on the Roof	Jason Carr
	& Juliet	Dominic Fallacaro and Bill Sherman
	Amélie	Barnaby Race
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic^[A]
2022^[A]
	Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical	Simon Hale (orchestrations)
	Anything Goes	David Chase, Bill Elliott and Rob Fisher (orchestrations)
	Back to the Future: The Musical	Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (music and lyrics), Bryan Crook and Ethan Popp (orchestrations)
	Life of Pi	Andrew T. Mackay (music)
2023
	Standing at the Sky's Edge	Richard Hawley (music and lyrics), Tom Deering (orchestrations)
	The Band's Visit	David Yazbek (music and lyrics), Jamshied Sharifi (orchestrations), Andrea Grody (additional arrangements)
	My Neighbour Totoro	Joe Hisaishi (music), Will Stuart (orchestrations and arrangements)
	Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!	Daniel Kluger (orchestrations and arrangements), Nathan Koci (additional vocal arrangements)
2024
	Sunset Boulevard	Alan Williams (music direction and music supervision)
	Guys and Dolls	Tom Brady (arrangements and music supervision), Charlie Rosen (orchestrations)
	Just for One Day	Matt Brind (arrangements, music supervision, and orchestrations)
	Operation Mincemeat	Joe Bunker (music direction), Steve Sidwell (orchestrations)

^ ^a ^b Due to late March 2020^[2] to late July 2021^[3] closing of London theatre productions during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the 2022 awards recognise productions that launched anytime from February 2020 to February 2022^[4]

References

^ "Olivier Awards 2024 with Mastercard nominations announced". Official London Theatre. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
^ Johnson, The Rt Hon Boris, MP (2020-03-23). Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 23 March 2020 [transcript] (Speech). Prime Minister's Televised Speech to the United Kingdom. www.gov.uk. London, UK. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2022-04-25. From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home.{{cite speech}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ McPhee, Ryan (2021-06-14). "U.K. Postpones Reopening Roadmap; West End Theatres Will No Longer Reopen in Full in June". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Step 4 of the roadmap will allow productions to play without capacity restrictions. June 21 was the goal; now, the government is eyeing July 19.
^ Thomas, Sophie (2022-03-08). "Everything you need to know about the Olivier Awards". londontheatre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Any new production that opened between 19 Feb. 2020 to 22 Feb. 2022 are eligible for categories in the 2022 Olivier Awards. With two years worth of shows set for honours in one year's ceremony, the 2022 Olivier Awards will prove tougher competition than before.

London Theatre Guide (2008). "The Laurence Olivier Awards: Full List of Winners, 1976-2008" (.PDF). 1976-2008. The Society of London Theatre. p. 20. Retrieved 30 August 2008.

External links

Official website

[COVID1-5] Due to late March 2020^[2] to late July 2021^[3] closing of London theatre productions during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the 2022 awards recognise productions that launched anytime from February 2020 to February 2022^[4]

[1] "Olivier Awards 2024 with Mastercard nominations announced". Official London Theatre. Retrieved 2024-03-24.

[2] Johnson, The Rt Hon Boris, MP (2020-03-23). Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 23 March 2020 [transcript] (Speech). Prime Minister's Televised Speech to the United Kingdom. www.gov.uk. London, UK. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2022-04-25. From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home.{{cite speech}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[3] McPhee, Ryan (2021-06-14). "U.K. Postpones Reopening Roadmap; West End Theatres Will No Longer Reopen in Full in June". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Step 4 of the roadmap will allow productions to play without capacity restrictions. June 21 was the goal; now, the government is eyeing July 19.

[4] Thomas, Sophie (2022-03-08). "Everything you need to know about the Olivier Awards". londontheatre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Any new production that opened between 19 Feb. 2020 to 22 Feb. 2022 are eligible for categories in the 2022 Olivier Awards. With two years worth of shows set for honours in one year's ceremony, the 2022 Olivier Awards will prove tougher competition than before.

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