Olivier Awards 2023: Paul Mescal, Jodie Comer and Totoro triumph

Paul Mescal and Jodie Comer won the big acting prizes of the night

Oscar nominee Paul Mescal, Killing Eve star Jodie Comer and My Neighbour Totoro have all triumphed at this year's Olivier Awards.

Mescal won best actor for A Streetcar Named Desire, and said he was "standing on the shoulders of the immense talent of so many other people".

Comer won best actress for Prima Facie, and said she was overwhelmed, praising the "complete sisterhood backstage - a constant network of support".

My Neighbour Totoro won six Oliviers.

The awards were held at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Totoro's wins also included best entertainment or comedy play - plus best director.

Standing at the Sky's Edge won best new musical, while Beverley Knight won best supporting actress in a musical for her role as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Sylvia.

Former Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill won best actor in a musical for Oklahoma!, while 16 of the 18 winners were receiving their first Olivier award.

The show was hosted by Ted Lasso star and three-time Oliviers nominee Hannah Waddingham, who is also going to co-host this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. She sang with the casts of various musicals, opening the show with an original song.

She joked in her opening monologue she would "happily be mauled to death" by Comer in Killing Eve - in which the actress plays a lethal killer.

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Waddingham also used sign language to welcome former Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis, who was nominated for best supporting actress for As You Like It.

Mescal thanked his co-stars and parents "who never said no" in his acceptance speech, and told his Mum, who has been undergoing cancer treatment: "I hope you get better soon."

The actor told the BBC afterwards that when he chooses a role, he is "interested in exploring the myriad of different versions of what masculinity is".

He won for playing the toxic Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar, and was Oscar-nominated for playing the troubled Calum in Aftersun, after getting critical acclaim for playing sensitive Connell in TV drama Normal People.

"I think creative death for me would be for people to predict what I'm doing next," he added. "I don't want that. So hopefully I'll keep it moving in a direction that surprises people."

Jodie Comer drew praise for her West End debut in Prima Facie

In a one-woman show, Comer plays a barrister specialising in defending people accused of sexual assault, who questions the system after being date-raped.

She said in her acceptance speech: "To any kids who haven't been to drama school, who can't afford to go, have been rejected - don't let anyone tell you it's impossible."

Comer also joked that she was having a "brain... fart" when her mind momentarily went blank.

The actress told the BBC afterwards that when she explored the play, she was "actually quite embarrassed" she had not "questioned" how the legal system operates before.

She researched the role by sitting in on court cases and speaking to barristers, judges and police offers who were "very honest" about how they had to "put aside their own feelings as a woman, to commit to the job that they do".

Beverley Knight paid tribute to the women's movement

Knight did two performances during the ceremony - one for Sylvia, and the other for Sister Act - and gave an emotional acceptance speech, saying: "Just over 100 years ago, Emmeline Pankhurst stood on this stage and said,' I incite this meeting to rebellion'.

"She told each of the women in the room, 'be militant in your own way' and that was in 1912. The next year they banned the women's Social and Political Union.

"One hundred later we're stood on this stage - we have reclaimed the power for those women. I want to thank with all my heart the Old Vic for giving us a second bite on this one."

Heartfelt speech

The Royal Shakespeare Company's Totoro, based on the Studio Ghibli classic animation and staged at the Barbican, is about sisters Satsuki and Mei, whose mother is ill in rural Japan.

Its playwright Tom Morton-Smith dedicated their win to his stillborn daughter, saying his wife had been pregnant when he wrote the show.

In a heartfelt speech, he said he wrote Totoro with the joy and expectation of being a new parent but, after his daughter's death, he wanted to keep her memory alive when people watched the play.

Chris Bush, the writer of Standing at the Sky's Edge, set in a council estate in Sheffield, thanked the city that inspired her, and called for art to be "available and accessible to every single person who wants to see it".

The show also won best original score or new orchestrations for Richard Hawley, who has played with Pulp and the Arctic Monkeys, and Tom Deering.

Hawley paid tribute to Pulp's bass player Steve Mackie, his "fallen comrade" who died last month aged 56.

On Monday, following the show's Olivier wins, it was announced Standing At The Sky's Edge would transfer to London's West End - opening at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in February 2024.

Arthur Darvill thanked his "inspiring" drama teacher, and called for better teachers' pay

Sir Derek Jacobi was given the lifetime achievement award, and joked that it would be difficult to talk as he was "already crying".

Dame Arlene Phillips was given a special award, and the show ended with a performance from Grease The Musical, which she choreographed.

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Here are the winners in full:

• Best new play - Prima Facie

• Best new musical - Standing At The Sky's Edge

• Best entertainment or comedy play - My Neighbour Totoro

• Best revival - A Streetcar Named Desire

• Best musical revival - Oklahoma!

• Best family show - Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show

• Best director - Phelim McDermott, for My Neighbour Totoro

• Best actor - Paul Mescal, for A Streetcar Named Desire

• Best actress - Jodie Comer, for Prima Facie

• Best supporting actor - Will Keen, for Patriots

• Best supporting actress - Anjana Vasan, for A Streetcar Named Desire

• Best actor in a musical - Arthur Darvill, for Oklahoma!

• Best actress in a musical - Katie Brayben, for Tammy Faye

• Best supporting actor in a musical - Zubin Varla, for Tammy Faye

• Best supporting actress in a musical - Beverley Knight, for Sylvia

• Best set design - Tom Pye, for My Neighbour Totoro

• Best lighting design - Jessica Hung Han Yun, for My Neighbour Totoro

• Best new dance production - Traplord

• Best new opera - Alcina

• Best costume design - Kimie Nakano, for My Neighbour Totoro

• Best sound design - Tony Gayle, for My Neighbour Totoro

• Best original score or orchestration - Richard Hawley & Tom Deering, for Standing At The Sky's Edge

• Best theatre choreographer - Matt Cole, for Disney's Newsies

• Outstanding achievement in dance - Dickson Mbi, for Enowate

• Outstanding achievement in opera - William Kentridge, for Sibyl

• Outstanding achievement in affiliate theatre - The P Word

• Special award - Dame Arlene Phillips

• Lifetime award - Sir Derek Jacobi