Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play
{{Short description|Annual award presented by The Society of London Theatre}}
{{Infobox award
| name = Noël Coward
Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play
| awarded_for = Best New Comedy
| presenter = Society of London Theatre
| location = {{ENG}}
| year = 1976
| website = {{Official URL}}
}}
The Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
The award was titled Comedy of the Year from its establishment in 1976 until 1990, was renamed to Best Comedy starting in 1991, Best New Comedy starting in 1999, then retitled to its current name for the 2020 Olivier Awards – when "Entertainment" was moved to join Best Comedy Play from the Best Entertainment and Family award, which was renamed Best Family Show at that same time.
Winners and nominees
=1970s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:98%;" |
| style="background:#bebebe;"
! style="width:10%;"| Year ! style="width:45%;"| Play ! style="width:45%;"| Writer |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1976 |
|---|
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| The Bed Before Yesterday |
| Confusions |
| Funny Peculiar
| Mike Stott |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1977 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Bedroom Farce |
| Once a Catholic |
| The Kingfisher |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1978 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Filumena |
| Shut Your Eyes and Think of England
| John Chapman and Anthony Marriott |
| Ten Times Table |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1979 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Clouds |
| Outside Edge |
=1980s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:98%;" |
| style="background:#bebebe;"
! style="width:10%;"| Year ! style="width:45%;"| Play ! style="width:45%;"| Writer |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1980 |
|---|
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Born in the Gardens |
| Make and Break |
| Sisterly Feelings |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1981 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Steaming |
| Anyone for Denis? |
| Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
| Dario Fo |
| On the Razzle |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1982 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Key for Two
| John Chapman and Dave Freeman |
| Season's Greetings |
| Trafford Tanzi
| Claire Luckham |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1983 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Beethoven's Tenth |
| Run for Your Wife |
| Woza Albert!
| Barney Simon, Percy Mtwa and Mbongeni Ngema |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1984 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Gymslip Vicar
| Cliff Hanger |
| Intimate Exchanges |
| Two into One |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1985 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Bouncers |
| Love's Labours Lost |
| Pravda
| Howard Brenton and David Hare |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1986 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Lend Me a Tenor |
| The Merry Wives of Windsor |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1987 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| John Cecil Holm and George Abbott |
| Groucho: A Life in Revue
| Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| Twelfth Night |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1988 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Henceforward... |
| Separation |
| The Common Pursuit |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1989/90 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell |
| Some Americans Abroad |
| Steel Magnolias |
=1990s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:98%;" |
| style="background:#bebebe;"
! style="width:10%;"| Year ! style="width:45%;"| Play ! style="width:45%;"| Writer |
| rowspan="3" align="center"| 1991 |
|---|
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Gasping |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1992 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| La Bête |
| An Evening with Gary Lineker
| Arthur Smith and Chris England |
| It's Ralph |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1993 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Lost in Yonkers |
| On the Piste |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1994 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Hysteria |
| April in Paris |
| The Life of Stuff
| Simon Donald |
| Time of My Life |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1995 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Beautiful Thing |
| Dead Funny |
| Neville's Island |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1996 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Mojo |
| Communicating Doors |
| Funny Money |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1997 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| 'Art' |
| The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
| Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield |
| Laughter on the 23rd Floor |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 1998 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Popcorn |
| East is East |
| A Skull in Connemara |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 1999 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Alarms and Excursions |
| Love Upon the Throne
| Patrick Barlow, Martin Duncan and John Ramm |
| Things We Do for Love |
=2000s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:98%;" |
| style="background:#bebebe;"
! style="width:10%;"| Year ! style="width:45%;"| Play ! style="width:45%;"| Writer |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2000 |
|---|
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Comic Potential |
| Quartet |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2001 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Cooking with Elvis
| Lee Hall |
| House/Garden |
| Peggy for You |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2002 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben |
| Boston Marriage |
| Caught in the Net |
| Feelgood |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2003 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| RolePlay |
| Dinner |
| Lobby Hero |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2006 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Heroes | Gérald Sibleyras and Tom Stoppard |
| Glorious! |
| Shoot the Crow |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2007 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Patrick Barlow, Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon |
| Don Juan in Soho |
| Love Song |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2008 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Bill Naughton and Ayub Khan-Din |
| Absurdia: The Crimson Hotel |
| Elling |
| Whipping It Up |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2009 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Fat Pig |
| The Female of the Species |
=2010s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:98%;" |
| style="background:#bebebe;"
! style="width:10%;"| Year ! style="width:45%;"| Play ! style="width:45%;"| Writer |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2010 |
|---|
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Calendar Girls |
| England People Very Nice |
| Parlour Song |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2014 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE"
| Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense | Robert Goodale and David Goodale |
| The Duck House
| Dan Patterson and Colin Swash |
| The Full Monty |
| The Same Deep Water as Me |
| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2015 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Handbagged |
| Shakespeare in Love
| Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard and Lee Hall |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2016 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| A Christmas Carol |
| Hand to God
| Robert Askins |
| Peter Pan Goes Wrong |
| rowspan="5" align="center"| 2017 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| The Comedy About a Bank Robbery |
| Nice Fish |
| The Truth
|Florian Zeller in a version by Christopher Hampton |
| rowspan="5" |2018 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Dry Powder |
| Mischief Movie Night |
| The Miser
|Molière in an adaptation by Sean Foley and Phil Porter |
| rowspan=5 align=center| 2019 |
| style="background:#B0C4DE" |
| Nine Night |
| Quiz |
= 2020s =
{{notelist-ua}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
- {{cite web | author=London Theatre Guide | title=The Laurence Olivier Awards: Full List of Winners, 1976-2008 | version=1976-2008 | pages=20 | format=.PDF | publisher=The Society of London Theatre | url=http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/servlet/file/LOA_fullist.pdf?ITEM_ENT_ID=101095&ITEM_VERSION=1&COLLSPEC_ENT_ID=8 | year=2008 | accessdate=2008-08-30}}