Hairspray and Parade Top 2008 Olivier Nominations

The West End premiere of the Broadway musical Hairspray led nominations for the 32nd annual Laurence Olivier Awards, nabbing a record-breaking 11 in total, including Best New Musical and leading actor and actress in a musical for stars Michael Ball and Leanne Jones. At the same time, the London debut of the Jason Robert Brown musical Parade scored an impressive seven nods, leading the best-ever haul for the tiny Donmar Warehouse, which tallied 13 noms in all.

Completing the best musical lineup are The Lord of the Rings, which went on to feature predictably strongly in the design categories, and The Drowsy Chaperone, a Broadway hit that flopped in London after only a few months. Stars Summer Strallen and Bob Martin were nommed for their work in the Canadian-spawned show, with Martin the lone London holdover from Drowsy's Broadway cast.

Among straight plays, the National Theatre's sellout revival of War Horse is up for six Oliviers, including Best New Play, where it faces major competition from A Disappearing Number—the Simon McBurney show for his Complicite troupe that has already won this same prize at both the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in November and last month's Critics' Circle Awards. The Reporter and Vernon God Little complete that category.

In a strong year both for the classics Shakespeare in particular and starry revivals, notable omissions included anyone from the cast of the Richard Griffiths/Daniel Radcliffe reappraisal of Equus or the Orlando Bloom/Tim Healy remounting of In Celebration, both West End entries. Instead, the actor in a play category is top-heavy with Bardic turns: Ian McKellen's Lear, Patrick Stewart's Macbeth, and, the odds-on favorite, Chiwetel Ejiofor's Othello. Absent from that shortlist is Simon Russell Beale's Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, which also garnered raves. Mark Rylance from Boeing-Boeing and Elling star John Simm complete the category.

The actress in a play quintet includes Ejiofor's Othello leading lady, Kelly Reilly, in her Shakespearean debut, as well as Kristin Scott Thomas' Arkadina in The Seagull—the latter in a production that is now said to be headed for Broadway in the fall. Also on tap are Fiona Shaw's Winnie in Happy Days and Penelope Wilton from the Donmar revival of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman. An early favorite, however, would seem to be Anne-Marie Duff from the National's Saint Joan, simply because she has already won this same prize twice over earlier this season.

The director prize includes two Americans in its shortlist of four: Hairspray's Jack O'Brien and Parade's Rob Ashford, who was also nommed for choreography for a show that in fact marked Ashford's directing debut. They go up against Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, who co-directed War Horse, and critics' darling Rupert Goold, for his New York-bound Macbeth.

Winners will be announced 9 March in a black-tie ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel to be hosted by Richard E. Grant.

Here is a complete list of nominees:

BEST NEW MUSICAL
The Drowsy Chaperone
Hairspray
The Lord of the Rings
Parade

BEST NEW PLAY
A Disappearing Number by Simon McBurney
The Reporter by Nicholas Wright
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, adapted by Tanya Ronder
War Horse adapted by Nick Stafford, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo

BEST NEW COMEDY
Absurdia: The Crimson Hotel by Michael Frayn
Elling adapted by Axel Hellstenius in collaboration with Peter Næss, translated by Nicholas Norris and based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjørnsen
Rafta Rafta by Ayub Khan-Din based on All in Good Time by Bill Naughton
Whipping It Up by Steve Thompson

BEST REVIVAL
Boeing-Boeing by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverley Cross
Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Christopher Hampton

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL
Fiddler on the Roof
Little Shop of Horrors
The Magic Flute- Impempe Yomlingo

BEST ACTRESS
Anne-Marie Duff, Saint Joan
Kelly Reilly, Othello
Kristin Scott Thomas, The Seagull
Fiona Shaw, Happy Days
Penelope Wilton, John Gabriel Borkman

BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Othello
Ian McKellen, King Lear
Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing
John Simm, Elling
Patrick Stewart, Macbeth

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Michelle Fairley, Othello
Pam Ferris, The Entertainer
Conleth Hill, Philistines
Rory Kinnear, The Man of Mode

BEST NEWCOMER IN A PLAY
David Dawson, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Tom Hiddleston, Cymbeline
Tom Hiddleston, Othello
Stephen Wight, Dealer's Choice

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Leanne Jones, Hairspray
Lara Pulver, Parade
Sheridan Smith, Little Shop of Horrors
Summer Strallen, The Drowsy Chaperone 

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Michael Ball, Hairspray
Bertie Carvel, Parade
 Henry Goodman for Fiddler on the Roof
Bob Martin, The Drowsy Chaperone

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Tracie Bennett, Hairspray
Elinor Collett, Hairspray
Shaun Escoffery, Parade
Alistair McGowan, Little Shop of Horrors

BEST DIRECTOR
Rob Ashford, Parade
Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse
Rupert Goold, Macbeth
Jack O'Brien, Hairspray

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER
Rob Ashford, Parade
Jerry Mitchell, Hairspray
Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone
Toby Sedgwick, War Horse