Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design
Awarded for	Best Lighting Design
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First awarded	1991
Currently held by	Jack Knowles for Sunset Boulevard (2024)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design 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 1991. There had been an award for Designer of the Year from 1976 to 1990, originally focused on set designers but including an increasing number of commingled nominations for other design specialties through the years. The commingled single award was retired after the 1990 ceremony, with more granular awards introduced in 1991 for Best Set Design and Best Costume Design, along with this Best Lighting Design award.

Winners and nominees

1990s

Year	Designer	Production
1991
	Jean Kalman	Richard III and White Chameleon
	Alan Burrett	Three Sisters
	Pat Collins	The Illusion
	Paul Pyant	The Wind in the Willows
1992
	Mark Henderson	Murmuring Judges and Long Day's Journey into Night
	Wayne Dowdeswell	Edward II
	Jean Kalman	The Night of the Iguana and Hedda Gabler
	Sumio Yoshii	Tango at the End of Winter
1993
	Howell Binkley	Kiss of the Spider Woman
	Paule Constable	The Street of Crocodiles
	Rick Fisher	An Inspector Calls
	Jean Kalman	A Midsummer Night's Dream
1994
	Rick Fisher	Hysteria , Machinal and Moonlight
	Wayne Dowdeswell	Medea
	Terry Hands and Wayne Dowdeswell	Tamburlaine the Great
	Brian Harris	The School of Night
1995
	Mark Henderson	All his work during the year
	Rick Fisher	The Cryptogram and Pericles
	David Hersey	Glengarry Glen Ross and Oliver!
	Tina MacHugh	Ghosts and Rutherford and Son
1996
	David Hersey	Burning Blue, The Glass Menagerie and Twelfth Night
	Mark Henderson	Absolute Hell, La Grande Magia and Indian Ink
	Peter Mumford	Richard II , Mother Courage and Her Children and Volpone
	Chris Parry	A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Way of the World
1997
	Chris Parry	Tommy
	Mark Henderson	John Gabriel Borkman
	David Hersey	Martin Guerre
	Hugh Vanstone	'Art'
1998
	Rick Fisher	Chips with Everything and Lady in the Dark
	Paul Anderson	The Chairs
	Howard Harrison	The Fix
	Hugh Vanstone	Hamlet
1999
	Hugh Vanstone	The Blue Room and The Unexpected Man
	Paule Constable	Amadeus and Uncle Vanya
	Mark Henderson	Britannicus and Phèdre
	David Hersey	Oklahoma!

2000s

Year	Designer	Production
2000
	Mark Henderson	Plenty , Spend Spend Spend , Suddenly, Last Summer , The Forest , The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , The Real Thing and Vassa
	Howard Harrison	Private Lives , Sleep With Me and The Tempest
	Donald Holder	The Lion King
	Peter Mumford	Collected Stories , Richard III , Summerfolk and The Merchant of Venice
2001
	Hugh Vanstone	The Cherry Orchard and The Graduate
	Howard Harrison	To the Green Fields Beyond and The Witches of Eastwick
	Mark Henderson	All My Sons
	Paul Pyant	Hamlet
2002
	Mark Henderson	A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Playboy of the Western World
	Howard Harrison	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Tales from Hollywood
	David Hersey	My Fair Lady and South Pacific
	Tim Mitchell	Henry IV
	Peter Mumford	Hamlet and Private Lives
2003
	Peter Mumford	The Bacchae
	Paule Constable	Play Without Words
	David Hersey	The Coast of Utopia
	Paul Pyant	A Streetcar Named Desire
2004
	Hugh Vanstone	Pacific Overtures
	Simon Corder	Hitchcock Blonde
	Howard Harrison	Ragtime
2005
	Paule Constable	His Dark Materials
	Howard Harrison	Mary Poppins
	Jean Kalman	Festen
	Paul Pyant	All's Well That Ends Well
2006
	Paule Constable	Don Carlos
	Rick Fisher	Billy Elliot
	Howard Harrison	Guys and Dolls
	Hugh Vanstone	Mary Stuart
2007
	Natasha Chivers and Mike Robertson	Sunday in the Park with George
	Neil Austin	Thérèse Raquin
	Jean Kalman	The Crucible
	Kenneth Posner	Wicked
	Hugh Vanstone	Spamalot
2008
	Howard Harrison	Macbeth
	Paule Constable	War Horse
	Kenneth Posner	Hairspray
	Paul Pyant	The Lord of the Rings
2009
	Paule Constable	The Chalk Garden
	Neil Austin	No Man's Land
		Piaf
	Paule Constable	Ivanov

2010s

Year	Designer	Production
2010
	Mark Henderson	Burnt by the Sun
	Kevin Adams	Spring Awakening
	Jon Clark	Three Days of Rain
	Mark Henderson	ENRON
2011
	Neil Austin	The White Guard
	Paule Constable	Love Never Dies
	Mark Henderson	After the Dance
	Hugh Vanstone	Deathtrap
2012
	Bruno Poet	Frankenstein
	Howard Harrison	Anna Christie
	Hugh Vanstone	Ghost
		Matilda
2013
	Paule Constable	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
	Paul Anderson	The Master and Margarita
	Lee Curran	Constellations
	Mark Henderson	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2014
	Tim Lutkin and Finn Ross	Chimerica
	Paul Pyant and Jon Driscoll	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
	Paule Constable	The Light Princess
	Peter Mumford	Ghosts
2015
	Howard Harrison	City of Angels
	Jon Clark	King Charles III
	Paule Constable and David Plater	Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
	Jan Versweyveld	A View from the Bridge
2016
	Mark Henderson	Gypsy
	Neil Austin	The Winter's Tale
	Natasha Chivers	Oresteia
	James Farncombe	People, Places and Things
2017
	Neil Austin	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
	Lee Curran	Jesus Christ Superstar
	Natasha Katz	The Glass Menagerie
	Hugh Vanstone	Groundhog Day
2018
	Howell Binkley	Hamilton
	Paule Constable	Angels in America
		Follies
	Jan Versweyveld	Network
2019
	Jon Clark	The Inheritance
	Neil Austin	Company
	Howell Binkley	Come from Away
	Lee Curran	Summer and Smoke

2020s

Year	Designer	Production
2020
	Paule Constable	The Ocean at the End of the Lane
	Neil Austin	Rosmersholm
	Howard Hudson	& Juliet
	Bruno Poet	Uncle Vanya
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic [upper-alpha 1]
2022 [upper-alpha 1]
	Andrzej Goulding and Tim Lutkin	Life of Pi
	Neil Austin	Frozen
	Isabella Byrd	Cabaret
	Tim Lutkin	Back to the Future: The Musical
2023
	Jessica Hung Han Yun	My Neighbour Totoro
	Natasha Chivers	Prima Facie
	Lee Curran	A Streetcar Named Desire
	Tim Lutkin	The Crucible
2024
	Jack Knowles	Sunset Boulevard
	Jon Clark	Dear England
		Stranger Things: The First Shadow
	Paule Constable	Guys and Dolls

1. Due to late March 2020 ^[1] to late July 2021 ^[2] 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 ^[3]

Multiple Wins

6 wins

• Mark Henderson

5 wins

• Paule Constable (2 consecutive)

3 wins

• Hugh Vanstone

2 wins

• Neil Austin
• Howell Binkley
• Rick Fisher
• Tim Lutkin

See also

• Tony Award for Best Lighting Design

References

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 2008-08-30.

External links

• Official website