SHERIDAN Smith has been named best musical actress at the Laurence Olivier Awards in London – one of the ceremony’s top prizes.

She was recognised for her work in West End hit Legally Blonde, which was also named best new musical, while Smith’s co-star Jill Halfpenny took the prize for best supporting role in a musical.

The night’s other big winner was the National Theatre’s revival of playwright Terence Rattigan’s After The Dance, which took four awards including best actress for Nancy Carroll, best revival and best actor in a supporting role for Adrian Scarborough.

After The Dance is a satire on the “bright young things” of the 1920s that had rarely been staged since its short original run in 1939 but it won widespread critical acclaim when it opened at the National last June.

In other awards, Roger Allam was named best actor for playing Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV at The Globe Theatre, beating favourites Sir Derek Jacobi and Rory Kinnear.

And David Thaxton was named best actor in a musical for Passion at the Donmar Warehouse.

Howard Davies took the best director prize for The White Guard at the Lyttelton, while the best new play award was presented to Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, about 1950s US race relations.

The Railway Children, which has been wowing audiences at Waterloo Station since last summer, took the entertainment award and We Will Rock You took the BBC Radio 2 audience award.

Ironically, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, went home empty-handed despite leading the field before the ceremony with seven nominations.

The prize-giving was rounded off with a special award for songwriter Stephen Sondheim in recognition of his contribution to theatre.

Prior to presenting it, Sir Cameron Mackintosh described the composer and lyricist as a “true legend”, adding: “His sense of theatrical adventure knows no bounds, his subjects… have shown us all no subjects are taboo.”

Sondheim’s Into The Woods, staged by the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, had earlier taken an award for best musical revival.

What the winners said

In accepting her award, an emotional Sheridan Smith thanked Legally Blonde‘s US creators for letting a “chav play an American rich girl”.

She went on to say: “This is the biggest honour. I had the best 14 months, it’s a massive cherry on an already perfectly baked cake.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Smith, from Epworth, Lincolnshire, won the role after being spotted by the show’s director, Jerry Mitchell. She was previously best known for her roles on TV in The Royle Family and Gavin and Stacey.

And she is currently starring in the West End revival of Flare Path alongside Sienna Miller and James Purefoy.

Her co-star Halfpenny said: “It’s such a privilege to do this job; I’m so excited to be in this industry.”

Surprise winner Roger Allam said upon receiving his award: “I have to thank the audience, half of which who get in for £5. This is for them.”

He went on to praise Patrick Stewart for persuading him to take the role, saying: “I hadn’t done any Shakespeare for at least a decade. Patrick Stewart said to me it’s like the middle-aged Hamlet. If you’re going to play the Globe it’s the perfect role.”

Best actress Nancy Carroll, who is due to give birth in 12 days, accepted her prize by saying:““We celebrated my daughter’s third birthday this afternoon with a bouncy castle and 20 toddlers, so if I don’t go into labour in the next 24 hours I’ll be very surprised!

“I have to thank everyone on that show, they were really the best human beings one could ever hope to know, let alone work with.”

Queen guitarist Brian May accepted the audience award for We Will Rock You and praised audiences who had kept the show running for nine years in spite of initially poor reviews.

He also thanked the show’s various performers, saying: “Thank you to the tremendous talent that has come through our door and kept us rocking throughout the years.”

And best director Howard Davies also thanked his production’s cast, saying: “It was 23 men in the cast and one woman and I was very glad she was there as it would have got quite out of hand otherwise! I want to thank them and Nicholas Hytner for letting me do a mad Russian play.”

The win marks Davies third Olivier as best director, following wins in 2001 for All My Sons, which he staged again last year, and 1999’s The Iceman Cometh – the play that was responsible for igniting Kevin Spacey’s love affair with London’s theatreland.

This year’s Olivier Awards – presented annually by the Society of London Theatre – were held at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Singer Michael Ball and actress Imelda Staunton hosted the star-studded ceremony.

View the winners in full

The winners reviewed:

Roger Allam in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 l The Railway Children l Blasted at Lyric Hammersmith

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