The Laurence Olivier Awards are a series of awards presented annually by The Society of London Theatre. They are presented in recognition of achievements in commercial British theatre, most notably plays and musicals in the West End of London, an area commonly referred to as "Theatreland". The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976 and, in 1984 they we renamed in honour of the renowned British actor Sir Laurence Olivier. The Olivier Awards are the most prestigious theatrical awards in the United Kingdom and are the UK equivalent of the Tony Awards.
This award category was included at only two ceremonies, before being replaced by the awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical.
Famous quotes containing the words laurence, award, performance and/or musical:
“With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.”
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“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)