Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton to Host the 2011 Olivier Awards

Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are set to host the 2011 Olivier Awards at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on March 13. As previously reported, the West End’s most prestigious theater awards have a received a high-profile makeover thanks to a partnership with MasterCard, and will be broadcast live, complete with red carpet coverage, on the BBC.

Ball, who won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Hairspray, has appeared on Broadway in The Woman in White and Aspects of Love. His West End credits include Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Passion, and The Woman in White. Staunton is perhaps best known for her screen roles including Vera Drake (Academy Award nomination), Freedom Writers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Taking Woodstock and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She won Olivier Awards for her West End turns in A Chorus of Disapproval, The Corn is Green and Into the Woods and was nominated for her role in Guys and Dolls.  This talented pair will co-star in Chichester Festival Theatre’s revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd this September.

Among the 2011 Olivier nominees are actors Sierra Boggess, Derek Jacobi, Bill T. Jones, Elena Roger and Mark Rylance, along with shows like Fela!, Legally Blonde and Clybourne Park.