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Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design
Society of London Theatre annual award
Summary
Society of London Theatre annual award
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Laurence Olivier Award |
| for Best Set Design | |
| awarded_for | Best Set Design |
| presenter | Society of London Theatre |
| location | |
| holder | Tom Scutt (set design) for Fiddler on the Roof (2025) |
| website |
for Best Set Design
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in professional 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.
The award originated as a single award for Designer of the Year in 1976 before being renamed as Best Set Design in 1991 with the introduction of awards for Best Costume Design and Best Lighting Design. In 2004, the award for Best Sound Design was introduced.
Winners and nominees
1970s
| Year | Designer | Production | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abd'Elkader Farrah | Henry IV and *Henry V* | |||||
| Eileen Diss | The Family Dance | |||||
| Ralph Koltai | Old World and Wild Oats | |||||
| Alan Tagg | Confusions | |||||
| John Napier | *King Lear* | |||||
| John Bury | Volpone | |||||
| Tazeena Firth and Timothy O'Brien | Tales from the Vienna Woods | |||||
| Ralph Koltai | Rosmersholm | |||||
| Ralph Koltai | *Brand* | |||||
| Eileen Diss | The Homecoming | |||||
| Abd'Elkader Farrah | Henry VI | |||||
| Tanya Moiseiwitsch | The Double Dealer | |||||
| William Dudley | *Undiscovered Country* | |||||
| John Bury | Strife | |||||
| John Napier | Once in a Lifetime | |||||
| Carl Toms | For Services Rendered |
1980s
| Year | Designer | Production | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dermot Hayes and John Napier | *Nicholas Nickleby* | ||||||||||
| John Bury | Amadeus | ||||||||||
| John Gunter | Juno and the Paycock | ||||||||||
| Jocelyn Herbert | Life of Galileo | ||||||||||
| Carl Toms | *The Provoked Wife* | ||||||||||
| Eileen Diss | Measure for Measure | ||||||||||
| John Napier | Cats | ||||||||||
| Saul Radomsky | Tonight at 8.30 | ||||||||||
| John Gunter | *Guys and Dolls* | ||||||||||
| Abd'Elkader Farrah | Poppy | ||||||||||
| Carl Toms | Windy City | ||||||||||
| Ultz | The Twin Rivals | ||||||||||
| Ralph Koltai | *Cyrano de Bergerac* | ||||||||||
| John Gunter | The Rivals | ||||||||||
| John Napier | Peter Pan | ||||||||||
| Carl Toms | The Real Thing | ||||||||||
| John Gunter | *Wild Honey* | ||||||||||
| Voytek Dolinski and Michael Levine | Strange Interlude | ||||||||||
| John Napier | Starlight Express | ||||||||||
| Carl Toms | The Aspern Papers | ||||||||||
| William Dudley | *The Mysteries* | ||||||||||
| Alison Chitty | Martine and She Stoops to Conquer | ||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Henry V, Love's Labour's Lost and The Winter's Tale | ||||||||||
| Philip Prowse | The Duchess of Malfi | ||||||||||
| William Dudley | *Futurists* | ||||||||||
| Maria Björnson | The Phantom of the Opera | ||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | As You Like It and Les liaisons dangereuses | ||||||||||
| Carl Toms | Dalliance and The Magistrate | ||||||||||
| Lucio Fanti | *The Hairy Ape* | ||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | A Penny for a Song and Macbeth | ||||||||||
| William Dudley | Girlfriends, Kiss Me, Kate and Richard II | ||||||||||
| Kappa Senoh | Macbeth | ||||||||||
| Richard Hudson | Andromache, Bussy D'Ambois, Candide, One Way Pendulum, The Tempest and *Too Clever by Half* | ||||||||||
| William Dudley | Bartholomew Fair, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Changeling, The Shaughraun and Waiting for Godot | ||||||||||
| Nick Ormerod | A Family Affair, Philoctetes and The Tempest | ||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | Measure for Measure and The Wizard of Oz |
1990s
| Year | Designer | Production | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Crowley | Ghetto, Hedda Gabler, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and *The Plantagenets* | |||||||||||
| The Design Team | Suicide for Love | |||||||||||
| Chris Dyer | The Merchant of Venice and The Wars of the Roses | |||||||||||
| John Napier | Miss Saigon | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | *The Wind in the Willows* | |||||||||||
| Tom Cairns | Sunday in the Park with George | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | Marya | |||||||||||
| Nigel Lowery | The Illusion | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | The Comedy of Errors and *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | When She Danced, Murmuring Judges and The Night of the Iguana | |||||||||||
| Ashley Martin-Davis | The Miser and The Recruiting Officer | |||||||||||
| Philip Prowse | A Woman of No Importance and The White Devil | |||||||||||
| Ian MacNeil | *An Inspector Calls* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Carousel, Henry IV and No Man's Land | |||||||||||
| Jerome Sirlin | Kiss of the Spider Woman | |||||||||||
| Robin Wagner | Crazy for You | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | *Hysteria* | |||||||||||
| Peter J. Davison | Medea | |||||||||||
| Ian MacNeil | Machinal | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | The Winter's Tale | |||||||||||
| Stephen Brimson Lewis | Design for Living and *Les Parents terribles* | |||||||||||
| Lez Brotherston | Neville's Island | |||||||||||
| Peter J. Davison | Le Cid and Saint Joan | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | Sweet Bird of Youth and The Tempest | |||||||||||
| John Napier | *Burning Blue* | |||||||||||
| John Gunter | Skylight, Absolute Hell and Twelfth Night | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | The Glass Menagerie | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Grande Magia and The Way of the World | |||||||||||
| Tim Hatley | *Stanley* | |||||||||||
| John Arnone | Tommy | |||||||||||
| Paul Farnsworth | Passion | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | 'Art' | |||||||||||
| Tim Goodchild | *Three Hours After Marriage* | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | The Homecoming | |||||||||||
| John Gunter | The Peter Hall Company's Season | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | Chips with Everything | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | *Oklahoma!* | |||||||||||
| Maria Björnson | Britannicus and Phèdre | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | Amadeus and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick | |||||||||||
| Richard Hoover | Not About Nightingales | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | The Blue Room and The Unexpected Man |
2000s
| Year | Designer | Production | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Howell | Richard III, Troilus and Cressida and *Vassa* | |||||||||||
| Maria Björnson | Plenty | |||||||||||
| Lez Brotherston | Spend Spend Spend | |||||||||||
| Richard Hudson | The Lion King | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | *All My Sons* | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | Baby Doll | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | The Caretaker | |||||||||||
| Brian Thomson | The King and I | |||||||||||
| Tim Hatley | Humble Boy and *Private Lives* | |||||||||||
| Lez Brotherston | The Little Foxes and A Midsummer Night's Dream | |||||||||||
| Julian Crouch and Graeme Gilmour | Shockheaded Peter | |||||||||||
| Robin Wagner | Kiss Me, Kate | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | My Fair Lady | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | *A Streetcar Named Desire* | |||||||||||
| Lez Brotherston | Play Without Words | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | The Coast of Utopia | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | *Hitchcock Blonde* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Mourning Becomes Electra | |||||||||||
| Franco Zeffirelli | Absolutely! (Perhaps) | |||||||||||
| Giles Cadle | *His Dark Materials* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Mary Poppins | |||||||||||
| William Dudley | The Woman in White | |||||||||||
| Ian MacNeil | Festen | |||||||||||
| Christopher Oram | Suddenly, Last Summer | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | *Hedda Gabler* | |||||||||||
| Ian MacNeil | Billy Elliot | |||||||||||
| Christopher Oram | Don Carlos | |||||||||||
| David Farley and Timothy Bird | *Sunday in the Park with George* | |||||||||||
| Tim Hatley | Spamalot | |||||||||||
| Eugene Lee | Wicked | |||||||||||
| Rae Smith and Handspring Puppet Company | *War Horse* | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | The Lord of the Rings | |||||||||||
| David Rockwell | Hairspray | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward and Lorna Heavey | Macbeth | |||||||||||
| Todd Rosenthal | *August: Osage County* | |||||||||||
| Paul Brown | Marguerite | |||||||||||
| Soutra Gilmour | The Collection and The Lover | |||||||||||
| Neil Murray | Brief Encounter | |||||||||||
| Tom Piper | The Histories |
2010s
| Year | Designer | Production | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultz | *Jerusalem* | |||||||||||
| Christopher Oram | Red | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | England People Very Nice | |||||||||||
| Anthony Ward | ENRON | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | *The White Guard* | |||||||||||
| Lez Brotherston | Design for Living | |||||||||||
| Miriam Buether | Earthquakes in London | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Love Never Dies | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | *Matilda* | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | Ghost | |||||||||||
| Michael Taylor | The Ladykillers | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | One Man, Two Guvnors | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie and Finn Ross | *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* | |||||||||||
| Hildegard Bechtler | Top Hat | |||||||||||
| Miriam Buether and Wang Gongxin | Wild Swans | |||||||||||
| Tim Hatley | The Bodyguard | |||||||||||
| Es Devlin | *Chimerica* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Once | |||||||||||
| Tim Goodchild | Strangers on a Train | |||||||||||
| Mark Thompson | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | |||||||||||
| Es Devlin | *The Nether* | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | Made in Dagenham | |||||||||||
| Rob Jones | City of Angels | |||||||||||
| Jan Versweyveld | A View from the Bridge | |||||||||||
| Anna Fleischle | *Hangmen* | |||||||||||
| Hildegard Bechtler | Oresteia | |||||||||||
| Es Devlin | Hamlet | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Fensom | Farinelli and the King | |||||||||||
| Christine Jones | *Harry Potter and the Cursed Child* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | Aladdin | |||||||||||
| The Glass Menagerie | ||||||||||||
| Rob Howell | Groundhog Day | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley and 59 Productions | *An American in Paris* | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | Ink | |||||||||||
| Rob Howell | The Ferryman | |||||||||||
| Vicki Mortimer | Follies | |||||||||||
| Bunny Christie | *Company* | |||||||||||
| Bob Crowley | The Inheritance | |||||||||||
| Es Devlin | The Lehman Trilogy | |||||||||||
| Anna Fleischle | Home, I'm Darling |
2020s
| Year | Designer | Production | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Crowley | **Mary Poppins** | |||||||
| Soutra Gilmour | & Juliet | |||||||
| Rae Smith | Rosmersholm | |||||||
| Uncle Vanya | ||||||||
| Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||||
| Tim Hatley (set design), Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell (puppet design) | *Life of Pi* | |||||||
| Tim Hatley (set design) and Finn Ross (video design) | Back to the Future: The Musical | |||||||
| Derek McLane | Moulin Rouge! | |||||||
| Tom Scutt | Cabaret | |||||||
| Tom Pye | *My Neighbour Totoro* | |||||||
| Miriam Buether | To Kill A Mockingbird | |||||||
| Ben Stones | Standing at the Sky's Edge | |||||||
| Mark Walters | Jack and the Beanstalk | |||||||
| Miriam Buether (set design), 59 Productions (video design) | *Stranger Things: The First Shadow* | |||||||
| Bunny Christie (set design) | Guys and Dolls | |||||||
| Es Devlin (set design), Ash J Woodward (video design) | Dear England | |||||||
| Soutra Gilmour (set design), Nathan Amzi & Joe Ransom (video design) | Sunset Boulevard | |||||||
| Tom Scutt (set design) | *Fiddler on the Roof* | |||||||
| Jon Bausor (set design), Toby Olié & Daisy Beattie (puppetry design) & Satoshi Kuriyama (projection design) | Spirited Away | |||||||
| Frankie Bradshaw (set design) | Ballet Shoes | |||||||
| Es Devlin (set design) | Coriolanus |
Individuals with multiple wins
5 wins
- William Dudley
4 wins
- Bunny Christie
3 wins
- Bob Crowley
- Tim Hatley
- Rob Howell
- John Napier
- Mark Thompson (2 consecutive)
2 wins
- Es Devlin (consecutive)
- John Gunter
- Ralph Koltai
References
References
- Johnson, The Rt Hon Boris, MP. (2020-03-23). "Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 23 March 2020 [transcript]".
- McPhee, Ryan. (2021-06-14). "U.K. Postpones Reopening Roadmap; West End Theatres Will No Longer Reopen in Full in June". [[Playbill]].
- Thomas, Sophie. (2022-03-08). "Everything you need to know about the Olivier Awards". londontheatre.co.uk.
Wikipedia Source
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