As announced on Sunday 28 April, Chichester Festival Theatre has scooped four prizes at the Olivier Awards. Three relate to Sweeney Todd, the musical which began life as a Chichester Festival 2011 production before transferring to the West End last year.
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton won Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical for their roles in Sweeney Todd, and the production itself won Best Musical Revival. Goodnight Mister Tom won the Entertainment and Family category. This was a Chichester Festival Theatre co-production with Fiery Engel who lead the Children's Touring Partnership.
The 13 Olivier Award nominations were all for productions which transferred to the West End durning the theatre's 50th Anniversary in 2012.
Sweeney Todd recevied an additional three nominations, Kiss Me, Kate received a total of five nominations and The Judas Kiss, a Chichester Festival Theatre co-production, received a Best Actor nomination for Rupert Everett.
Jonathan Church, Artistic Director at Chichester Festival Theatre, said, "we are absolutely delighted that Sweeney Todd and Goodnight Mister Tom have been recognised in this way by the theatre industry. Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton gave incredibly committed and powerful performances in two extremely demanding roles at the heart of a landmark production. Sweeney Todd's success was achieved through the work of a superb cast and creative team led by director Jonathan Kent.
"Goodnight Mr Tom was the first production by Children's Touring Partnership, which was set up by Chichester Festival Theatre and producers Fiery Angel with the support of the Arts Council to create high quality theatre at affordable prices for young people and their families. The positive response from audiences and critics has been gratifying.
"These Olivier Awards further acknowledge the growing impact of Chichester's work which has led to two million people beyond the region seeing our productions in the last three years."
Chichester's Fesival 2013 opened on Monday 29 April in the Minerva Theatre with a revival of The Pajama Game, a musical directed by Richard Eyre. Other highlights of the season include the return of the critically acclaimed production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Artuno Ui prior to its West End transfer in September.
Theatre in the Park, a temporary state-of-the-art auditorium, will be unveiled this summer with a major production of Barnum presented in association with Cameron Mackintosh and co-directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel. Theatre in the Park will be erected in June while the £22 million RENEW development of the Festival Theatre continues.
Mirroring the Festival Theatre's auditorium, the purpose-built temporary building will house 1,400 seats and a thrust stage. It will be just a few minutes stroll across Oaklands Park from the Festival Theatre site.