ITV to air Olivier Awards special in place of cancelled ceremony

ITV is to air an Olivier Awards special in April after this year’s ceremony was cancelled.

The biggest night in British theatre was forced to call off its live show at the Royal Albert Hall due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Instead, an one-off hour-long special called Olivier Awards – Greatest Moments will air on Sunday, April 5 at 10:15PM on ITV.

The show will be hosted by Jason Manford, who was meant to host the awards ceremony, and feature highlights from the past ten years of Olivier Awards including performances from Dreamgirls, Hamilton, The Book Of Mormon, Disney’s The Lion King and the RSC’s Matilda The Musical.

> Olivier Awards nominations 2020: Full list of this year’s Olivier Awards nominations

Society of London Theatre’s Chief Executive and Olivier Awards Executive Producer Julian Bird said: “Amid unprecedentedly difficult times for our theatre community, we look forward to providing audiences with a unique celebration of the last ten years of incredible, world-leading British theatre honoured at the Olivier Awards, in anticipation of a separate ceremony for this year’s winners in the Autumn.

“We are hugely grateful to our longstanding headline sponsor Mastercard, for their support this year and over the past decade – alongside all our other partners, who we look forward to working with again soon.”

As for the 2020 Olivier Awards ceremony itself, the SOLT say they currently intend to announce this year’s winners in the autumn.