Tim Rice & Elaine Paige Return to 'Argentina,' Matilda Girls Win Best Actress and Other Highlights of the 2012 Olivier Awards

The 36th Laurence Olivier Awards included a handful of indelible moments, including a joint Best Actress win and six other awards for Matilda. (Meanwhile, multiple nominees such as One Man, Two Guvnors, The Ladykillers and Ghost went home empty-handed.) Here are five highlights from the ceremony, held on April 15 at the Royal Opera House in London. (For a complete list of winners, click here.)

Elaine Paige Wows the Crowd
Britain's much-vaunted "first lady of musical theater," Elaine Paige, rose with grace and charm to the demands of presenting a lifetime achievement award to her onetime boyfriend Tim Rice, only to have the lyricist respond drolly about the critical response to the current Broadway revivals of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. His American reviews, he joked, "have now improved to mediocre." But there was nothing mediocre about Paige's fierce, fresh rendition of Evita's signature tune "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" during the ceremony, which she both acted and sang with blazing fervor. Her best review, as it happened, came immediately afterwards from Rice: "I don't think I've heard [that number] sung better than it was tonight," he told the crowd, whose approving applause is doubtless still ringing in possible Tony nominee (for Follies) Paige's ears.

The Four Matildas Share a Prize
Award ceremonies tend to favor shared nominees, especially of the pre-pubescent variety, as was proven when the trio of Billys in Billy Elliot won first an Olivier and then a Tony. This time there were four pint-sized girls sharing the stage to sing the deliciously self-defining "Naughty" from the evening's big winner, Matilda, later returning to the podium as joint recipients of the prize for Best Actress in a musical, a fitting gift because two of the four finished their run this past week. Matthew Warchus, receiving his Olivier for Best Director via satellite in New York, trumpeted the girls as "four little miracles," whereas composer Tim Minchin called them "four little twerps." However one describes them, the girls were amazing, both individually and en masse. Hats off to Kerry Ingram, Sophia Kiely, Eleanor Worthington Cox and Cleo Demetriou.

Sarah Lancashire Shows Off Her Belt
Belting her first-act torch song from the nominated musical Betty Blue Eyes, musical actress contender Sarah Lancashire was a leggy, large-voiced wonder, pitching George Stiles and Anthony Drewe's anthem to self-improvement to the back row of the Royal Opera House and beyond. The staying power of this song (which sounds like vintage Kander and Ebb) suggests itself as cover material for any number of reigning musical theater divas. Who will be first to step up to the plate?

Rory Kinnear Smooths Over an Embarrassing Technical Glitch
The National Theatre's recent, much-celebrated Hamlet (an Olivier nominee this time last year), Rory Kinnear, was one of several folks to fall victim to technical snafus during the three-hour-plus ceremony, held for the first time within the tony confines of the Royal Opera House. Introducing the tribute to theater people who have died during the preceding 12 months, Kinnear was forced because of a sound glitch to start his spiel all over again. "Basically," he said to generous laughter, "this is the somber moment that has been ruined by the unexpected but perhaps appropriate death of the sound man." The second time around, all went well.

Singin' in the Rain Hoofers Strut Their Stuff
Unfairly sidelined from the winners' circle by Crazy For You, the ongoing revival of Singin’ in the Rain nonetheless fielded a knockout entry in "Good Mornin'", performed by three of the show's four leads, Adam Cooper, Daniel Crossley and Olivier nominee Scarlett Strallen. (Additional nominee Katherine Kingsley, playing the screechy Lina Lamont, was allowed to stay in her seat. "Who's going to want to listen to someone sing off-key at the Oliviers?" she remarked with a laugh at the after-party.) As the nimblest imaginable menage a trois, the trio brought down the house and put their best feet forward for the choreographic prowess of nominee Andrew Wright.