Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director

The Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director 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.

Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director
Awarded for	Best Director
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First award	1976
Currently held by	Eline Arbo for The Years (2025)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

Introduced in 1976 as the award for Best Director, it was renamed in 2018 in honor of acclaimed theatre director Sir Peter Hall, beginning with the 2019 award ceremony.^[1]

In 1991, the category was briefly retired and divided into the categories Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical. These two categories were in turn retired in 1995, and the Best Director award was reinstated.

Robert Icke became the Best Director award's youngest ever winner at the age of 29 in 2016; the record was previously held by Deborah Warner, the 1988 recipient.

Only six women have ever won the award: Deborah Warner, Marianne Elliott, Lyndsey Turner, Miranda Cromwell, Rebecca Frecknall, and Eline Arbo.

Winners and nominees

1970s

Year	Director	Production
1976
	Jonathan Miller	Three Sisters
	Alan Ayckbourn	Confusions, Shakespeare's People and Yahoo
	Buzz Goodbody	Occupations and King Lear
	Terry Hands	Old World and Henry IV (parts 1 and 2 and Henry V)
1977
	Clifford Williams	Wild Oats
	Michael Blakemore	Privates on Parade
	Bernard Miles	The Fire that Consumes
	Trevor Nunn	Macbeth
1978
	Terry Hands	Henry VI
	Bill Bryden and Sebastian Graham-Jones	Lark Rise
	Christopher Morahan	The Philanderer
	Harold Prince	Evita
1979
	Michael Bogdanov	The Taming of the Shrew
	Michael Elliott	The Family Reunion
	Trevor Nunn	Once in a Lifetime
	Michael Rudman	Death of a Salesman

1980s

Year	Director	Production
1980
	Trevor Nunn and John Caird	The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
	John Barton	The Greeks
	Peter Hall	Amadeus
	John Dexter	Life of Galileo
1981
	Peter Wood	On the Razzle
	Donald McWhinnie	Translations
	Trevor Nunn	Cats
	Harold Pinter	Quartermaine's Terms
1982
	Richard Eyre	Guys and Dolls
	Michael Bogdanov	Uncle Vanya
	Adrian Noble	A Doll's House
	James Roose-Evans	84, Charing Cross Road
1983
	Terry Hands	Cyrano de Bergerac
	Bill Bryden	A Midsummer Night's Dream
	Barry Kyle	The Taming of the Shrew
	Peter Wood	The Rivals
1984
	Christopher Morahan	Wild Honey
	John Barton	Life's a Dream
	Michael Blakemore	Benefactors
	Adrian Noble	The Comedy of Errors
1985
	Bill Bryden	The Mysteries
	Bill Alexander	Richard III
	Garry Hines	The Playboy of the Western World
	Barry Kyle	Golden Girls and Love's Labour's Lost
1986
	Bill Alexander	The Merry Wives of Windsor
	Howard Davies	Les Liaisons Dangereuses
	Declan Donnellan	A Midsummer Night's Dream
	Peter Wood	The American Clock
1987
	Declan Donnellan	Le Cid, Twelfth Night and Macbeth
	Alan Ayckbourn	A View from the Bridge
	Yukio Ninagawa	Macbeth and Medea
	Peter Stein	The Hairy Ape
1988
	Deborah Warner	Titus Andronicus
	Howard Davies	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Secret Rapture and The Shaughraun
	Max Stafford-Clark	The Recruiting Officer and Our Country's Good
	David Thacker	A Touch of the Poet and An Enemy of the People
1989/90
	Michael Bogdanov	Wars of the Roses
	Richard Eyre	Racing Demon and The Voysey Inheritance
	Nicholas Hytner	Ghetto and Miss Saigon
	Trevor Nunn	Othello

1990s

Year	Director	Production
1996
	Sam Mendes	Company and The Glass Menagerie
	Richard Eyre	Skylight and La Grande Magia
	Adrian Noble	A Midsummer Night's Dream
	Matthew Warchus	Volpone and Henry V
1997
	Des McAnuff	Tommy
	Richard Eyre	John Gabriel Borkman
	Anthony Page	A Doll's House
	Matthew Warchus	'Art'
1998
	Richard Eyre	King Lear
	Walter Bobbie	Chicago
	Sam Mendes	Othello
	Matthew Warchus	Hamlet
1999
	Howard Davies	The Iceman Cometh
	Sam Mendes	The Blue Room
	Trevor Nunn	Oklahoma!
	Ian Rickson	The Weir

2000s

Year	Director	Production
2000
	Trevor Nunn	Summerfolk, The Merchant of Venice and Troilus and Cressida
	David Levaux	The Real Thing
	Jeremy Sams	Spend Spend Spend
	Julie Taymor	The Lion King
2001
	Howard Davies	All My Sons
	Michael Grandage	Passion Play
	Nicholas Hytner	Orpheus Descending
	Trevor Nunn	The Cherry Orchard
	Ian Talbot	The Pirates of Penzance
2002
	Michael Boyd	Henry VI and Richard III
	Michael Blakemore	Kiss Me, Kate
	Howard Davies	Private Lives
	Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch	Shockheaded Peter
	Ian Rickson	Mouth to Mouth
2003
	Sam Mendes	Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya
	Matthew Bourne	Play Without Words
	Richard Eyre	Vincent in Brixton
	Edward Hall	Rose Rage
2004
	Michael Grandage	Caligula
	Stafford Arima	Ragtime
	Gary Griffin	Pacific Overtures
	Stewart Lee	Jerry Springer
2005
	Nicholas Hytner	The History Boys
	Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne	Mary Poppins
	Rufus Norris	Festen
	Susan Stroman	The Producers
2006
	Richard Eyre	Hedda Gabler
	Stephen Daldry	Billy Elliot
	Michael Grandage	Don Carlos
	Phyllida Lloyd	Mary Stuart
	Melly Still	Coram Boy
2007
	Dominic Cooke	The Crucible
	Sam Buntrock	Sunday in the Park with George
	Joe Mantello	Wicked
2008
	Rupert Goold	Macbeth
	Rob Ashford	Parade
	Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris	War Horse
	Jack O'Brien	Hairspray
2009
	John Tiffany	Black Watch
	Terry Johnson	La Cage aux Folles
	Des McAnuff	Jersey Boys
	Emma Rice	Brief Encounter

2010s

Year	Director	Production
2010
	Rupert Goold	ENRON
	Michael Grandage	Hamlet
	Lindsay Posner	A View from the Bridge
	Ian Rickson	Jerusalem
	Bijan Sheibani	Our Class
2011
	Howard Davies	The White Guard
	Dominic Cooke	Clybourne Park
	Michael Grandage	King Lear
	Thea Sharrock	After the Dance
2012
	Matthew Warchus	Matilda
	Sean Foley	The Ladykillers
	Nicholas Hytner	One Man, Two Guvnors
	Rufus Norris	London Road
2013
	Marianne Elliott	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
	Jeremy Herrin	This House
	Simon McBurney	The Master and Margarita
	Stephen Daldry	The Audience
2014
	Lyndsey Turner	Chimerica
	Richard Eyre	Ghosts
	Maria Friedman	Merrily We Roll Along
	Susan Stroman	The Scottsboro Boys
2015
	Ivo van Hove	A View from the Bridge
	Rupert Goold	King Charles III
	Jeremy Herrin	Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies
	Josie Rourke	City of Angels
2016
	Robert Icke	Oresteia
	Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh	The Winter's Tale
	Matthew Dunster	Hangmen
	Jonathan Kent	Gypsy
2017
	John Tiffany	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
	Simon Stone	Yerma
	John Tiffany	The Glass Menagerie
	Matthew Warchus	Groundhog Day
2018
	Sam Mendes	The Ferryman
	Dominic Cooke	Follies
	Marianne Elliott	Angels in America
	Rupert Goold	Ink
	Thomas Kail	Hamilton
2019
	Stephen Daldry	The Inheritance
	Christopher Ashley	Come from Away
	Marianne Elliott	Company
	Rebecca Frecknall	Summer and Smoke
	Sam Mendes	The Lehman Trilogy

2020s

Year	Director	Production
2020
	Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell	Death of a Salesman
	Jamie Lloyd	Cyrano de Bergerac
	Trevor Nunn	Fiddler on the Roof
	Ian Rickson	Uncle Vanya
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic[A]
2022[A]
	Rebecca Frecknall	Cabaret
	Michael Longhurst	Constellations
	Kathleen Marshall	Anything Goes
	Max Webster	Life of Pi
2023
	Phelim McDermott	My Neighbour Totoro
	Rebecca Frecknall	A Streetcar Named Desire
	Robert Hastie	Standing at the Sky's Edge
	Justin Martin	Prima Facie
	Bartlett Sher	To Kill A Mockingbird
2024
	Jamie Lloyd	Sunset Boulevard
	Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin	Stranger Things: The First Shadow
	Rupert Goold	Dear England
	Sam Mendes	The Motive and the Cue

1. Due to late March 2020^[2] to late July 2021^[3] closing of London theatre productions during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the 2022 awards recognise productions that launched anytime from February 2020 to February 2022^[4]

Multiple awards and nominations

Note: This list of multiple awards and nominations includes individuals awarded and nominated for the Best Director award (1976–1990, 1996–present), as well as the short-lived (1991–1995) more granular pair of awards for Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical.

Awards

Three awards

• Howard Davies
• Stephen Daldry
• Declan Donnellan
• Richard Eyre
• Sam Mendes

Two awards

• Michael Bogdanov
• Rupert Goold
• Terry Hands
• Nicholas Hytner
• Trevor Nunn
• Deborah Warner
• Marianne Elliott
• John Tiffany

Nominations

Eleven nominations

• Sam Mendes

Ten nominations

• Richard Eyre
• Trevor Nunn

Six nominations

• Stephen Daldry
• Howard Davies
• Nicholas Hytner

Five nominations

• Declan Donnellan
• Rupert Goold
• Michael Grandage
• Adrian Noble
• Marianne Elliott

Four nominations

• Michael Blakemore
• Ian Rickson
• Matthew Warchus

Three nominations

• Michael Bogdanov
• Bill Bryden
• Dominic Cooke
• Terry Hands
• Simon McBurney
• Peter Wood
• Rebecca Frecknall
• John Tiffany

Two nominations

• Bill Alexander
• Alan Ayckbourn
• John Barton
• Matthew Bourne
• John Caird
• Jeremy Herrin
• Ian Judge
• Barry Kyle
• Jamie Lloyd
• Phyllida Lloyd
• Justin Martin
• Sean Mathias
• Des McAnuff
• Christopher Morahan
• Rufus Norris
• Steven Pimlott
• Harold Prince
• Susan Stroman
• David Thacker
• Deborah Warner

• Phelim McDermott

See also

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
• Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical