The Olivier Awards 2015 - Flashback!

It's a bit of an indulgent post for me today. The Olivier Awards are tonight and I'm reminiscing about last year when I was lucky enough to win tickets. So it's a bit of a long post but I had such fun looking through my pictures and remembering this magical night! I hope you enjoy reading it.

This weekend went by in a by of a blur. On Wednesday I entered a competition to win tickets to the Olivier Awards, on Thursday evening I was told I'd won, Saturday morning I bought a dress and Sunday evening I was on the red carpet! I spotted the competition on Twitter, MasterCard wanted you to tell them how the theatre makes you feel! Here is my very cheesy but honest winning answer! 

Never in a million years did I expect to win! So when I got the message I couldn't believe it and was completely useless teaching Zumba for the rest of the evening! 

Early but excited! 

James and I set off at 7.30am and reached our hotel by 12. Butterflies and excitement had already kicked in! Out hotel was stunning at that distracted me for a little while!

The Russel Hotel - like in Cats musical nerds!!
Up up past the Russel Hotel! 

We were a 15 minute walk from the The Royal Opera House so we decided to head out and get our bearings for the evening. The red carpet was already set up and the finishing touches were just being put in place. It was crazy to think in a few short hours we would be heading up it with all the stars! 

Look there are people waiting for the stars already! 

There was an Olivier Awards pop-up shop in Covent Garden which had a display of costumes and information on the nominees. Which only served to get me more excited! 

In the pop up shop.

Back at the hotel operation red carpet had commenced. I was shaking with nerves as I got ready goodness knows how my eyeliner got on straight. James said the last time he shaved that carefully was our wedding day! But we did it no disasters, tux on, dress on ready to go! 

Ready to go! 

A short taxi ride later we arrived at the red carpet and it was very quiet!!

We are on our way! 

I do like to be early but on this occasion I didn't want to be the first to arrive so we popped back into a pub. A few other people had that idea too as their were a few other gents in dinner jackets and ladies in evening gowns at the bar! 

James looking cool - Me being an excited dork. 

We picked up our tickets and headed onto the carpet. What an experience. Cameras flashing, people shouting the stars for autographs and lots of people buzzing about the place. Mark Strong and Jamie Campbell-Bower were on the red carpet at the same time as us. As was the cast of Sunny Afternoon that went on to win lots of awards that evening!

So excited getting ready to spot celebrities! 

Feeling very glam and Olivier Award Winner Mark Strong! 

From there we headed in to the Champagne reception! Lots of excited smiling faces buzzing around enjoying the free champers and the atmosphere! 

We so fancy!

At 6.15 we headed to our seats. Inside The Royal Opera House is incredibly beautiful and our view was fantastic. On our seats we found a gorgeous souvenir program and goody bag of sweets and a drink to keep us going through the three hour show!

Trying to capture the atmosphere.

Our View

Spot the Celebrity! 

Soon after we were in our seats the lights went down and the ceremony began. So many spellbinding performances. It just made we want to spend all my money on going to the theatre all the time. My personal highlights were Akram Kahn's wonderful dance tribute to Sylvie Guillem. Angela Lansbury's brilliant acceptance speech and standing ovation. Kevin Spacey singing Bridge Over Troubled Water with Beverley Knight. 

Pictures from the Olivier Awards Instagram

Pictures from the Olivier Awards Instagram

After the fantastic end to the ceremony we headed back to the Amphitheatre bar to enjoy the post award celebrations. 

The celebrity party!! 

What a great atmosphere. James and I were still blown away by what we had just seen and couldn't stop talking about the show while enjoying the food and drink provided! 

Mmm macarons!

Highlight of the party was meeting Nicole Scherzinger at the bar and telling her how much I enjoyed her performance of Memory, it moved me to tears. She thanked me, told me I was sweet and was pulled away by her manager. I trotted back to James to tell him my story! A little while later I headed over to raid the the pick and mix table. I was merrily putting flying saucers, jelly beans and flumps into a bag when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned round and it was Nicole Scherzinger. She apologised for being taken away when we were talking and hoped I didn't think she was rude! She thanked me again for what I said about her performance and with that was gone! Gobsmacked I headed back over to James not believing what just happened. What a lovely lady who smells amazing if you were wondering! Lol! 

Then we headed to a very busy dance floor to make the most of the rest of the evening. I realised the next morning when looking at the news the girl I recognised dancing next to me was in fact actress Gemma Arterton! At 1am we returned to our hotel, smiles on our faces and heads fullof amazing memories. We sat an reminisced I didn't want the night to end! 

Look at our little drunk faces! 

I can't believe that was a whole year ago! It was an absolutely wonderful experience and night I shall remember forever. This year I'll be enjoying the ceremony from my couch in my PJs! 

Much love

Charlie x 

Most pictures are my own. The rest are taken from the Olivier Award Instagram Page their Instagram handle and profile picture are shown.