Nicole Scherzinger gave a heartfelt thanks to god during her Olivier Awards acceptance speech, thanking him for saving her from tripping.

The actress won the Best Actress in a Musical prize for her performance in Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre, but had a stumble on her way up to the stage during Sunday's ceremony.

After kissing her fiancé Thom Evans, Nicole carefully made her way to the Royal Albert Hall stage in her daring gown.

Host Hannah Waddingham helped her up the steps but as she reached the top, the actress stumbled, with actor David Oyelowo reaching out to help her.

Nicole Scherzinger gave a heartfelt thanks to god during her Olivier Awards acceptance speech, thanking him for saving her from tripping

Nicole Scherzinger gave a heartfelt thanks to god during her Olivier Awards acceptance speech, thanking him for saving her from tripping

An emotional Nicole made a joke about her near-disaster, opening her acceptance speech with: 'First of all I would like to thank god for saving me from that trip right there.' 

She continued: 'But seriously, without him I am nothing.'

'Thank you to the London theatre community for wrapping your arms and legs around me like a spider monkey and embracing me as one of your own.'

Fighting back tears, she added: 'Coming from really humble beginnings I always wanted to be a singer and do musicals', she also said she wants to do 'so many roles' in the future.

The US actress and singer also said that she 'was coming for blood' on Broadway ahead of her taking Sunset Boulevard to New York. 

Sunset Boulevard came out on top with an impressive seven wins at this year's Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, including a gong for Nicole's co-star Tom Francis who took home the Best Actor in a Musical award.

After weeks of accolades it was almost inevitable that Sarah Snook might lead the winners  - and so it proved as the Australian star was named Best Actress.

Snook - best known for her starring role in HBO series Succession - scooped the award for her mesmerising one-woman performance in a new West End production of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray.

An emotional Nicole made a joke about her near-disaster, opening her acceptance speech with: 'First of all I would like to thank god for saving me from that trip right there'

An emotional Nicole made a joke about her near-disaster, opening her acceptance speech with: 'First of all I would like to thank god for saving me from that trip right there'

Sunset Boulevard came out on top with an impressive seven wins at this year's Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, including a gong for Nicole's co-star Tom Francis who took home the Best Actor in a Musical award

Sunset Boulevard came out on top with an impressive seven wins at this year's Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, including a gong for Nicole's co-star Tom Francis who took home the Best Actor in a Musical award

Olivier Awards 2024: WINNERS AT A GLANCE

Best Actor: Mark Gatiss  - The Motive and the Cue

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Will Close - Dear England

Best Actor in a Musical: Tom Francis - Sunset Boulevard

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Jak Malone - Operation Mincemeat

Best New Play: Dear England 

Best New Musical: Operation Mincemeat

Best Actress: Sarah Snook - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Best Actress in a Musical: Nicole Scherzinger - Sunset Boulevard

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Haydn Gwynne - When Winston Went to War With the Wireless

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Amy Trigg - The Little Big Things

Best Revival: Vanya

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After weeks of accolades it was almost inevitable that Sarah Snook might triumph as the 2024 Olivier Awards got underway on Sunday evening - and so it proved as the Australian star was named Best Actress, and rightly so

After weeks of accolades it was almost inevitable that Sarah Snook might lead the winners - and so it proved as the Australian star was named Best Actress 

Elsewhere there was triumph of sorts for Andrew Scott, who surprisingly lost out on the award for Best Actor but found himself among the winners after VANYA claimed the award for Best Revival (L-R: Simon Stephens, Rosanna Vize, Andrew Scott and Sam Yates, accepting the Best Revival award for VANYA)

Elsewhere there was triumph of sorts for Andrew Scott, who surprisingly lost out on the award for Best Actor but found himself among the winners after VANYA claimed the award for Best Revival (L-R: Simon Stephens, Rosanna Vize, Andrew Scott and Sam Yates, accepting the Best Revival award for VANYA) 

 The Australian actress takes all 26 roles in the production, among them Basil Hallward, Sibyl Vane and of course Gray himself.

Elsewhere there was triumph of sorts for Andrew Scott, who surprisingly lost out on the award for Best Actor but found himself among the winners after VANYA, director Stephen Simon's contemporary rendering of the Anton Chekhov classic, claimed the award for Best Revival during the event at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Scott brings to life multiple characters in adapter and co-creators Stephens' radical new version of the play, with Sunday's accolade coming just weeks after the death of his mother, Nora.

Adapted and directed by Sydney Theatre Company's artistic director Kip Williams, the play has already had successful runs in Adelaide, Auckland and Melbourne with actress Eryn Jean Norvill starring.

While Scott celebrated Vanya's triumph with his colleagues on Sunday night, the much-fancied star missed out on the award for Best Actor, with Mark Gatiss pipping him to the coveted gong.

Gatiss plays the late screen and stage legend Sir John Gielgud in Jack Thorne's The Motive And The Cue, a theatrical take on the fraught history behind a notorious 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, starring Gielgud and Richard Burton.

Olivier awards 2024: Full winners list

Best actor in a musical

David Cumming for Operation Mincemeat 

Tom Francis for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER

Daniel Mays for Guys and Dolls

Charlie Stemp for Crazy for You

Best actress in a musical

Natasha Hodgson for Operation Mincemeat 

Caissie Levy for Next to Normal

Nicole Scherzinger for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER

Marisha Wallace for Guys and Dolls

 

Best actress

Laura Donnelly for The Hills of California

Sophie Okonedo for Medea

Sarah Jessica Parker for Plaza Suite 

Sheridan Smith for Shirley Valentine 

Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray - WINNER

 

Best actor

Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue - WINNER

Joseph Fiennes for Dear England 

James Norton for A Little Life

Andrew Scott for Vanya 

David Tennant for Macbeth

 

Best new play

Dear England by James Graham - WINNER 

The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth 

The Motive and the Cue by Jack Thorne 

Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel

 

Best new musical

The Little Big Things, music by Nick Butcher, lyrics by Nick Butcher and Tom Ling, book by Joe White 

Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Operation Mincemeat, music, lyrics and book by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts - WINNER

A Strange Loop, music, lyrics and book by Michael R Jackson

 

Best actress in a supporting role in a musical

Grace Hodgett Young for Sunset Boulevard 

Zoë Roberts for Operation Mincemeat 

Amy Trigg for The Little Big Things - WINNER

Eleanor Worthington-Cox for Next to Normal

 

Best actor in a supporting role in a musical

Jak Malone for Operation Mincemeat - WINNER

Cedric Neal for Guys and Dolls 

David Thaxton for Sunset Boulevard 

Jack Wolfe for Next to Normal

 

Best actor in a supporting role

Will Close for Dear England - WINNER 

Paul Hilton for An Enemy of the People 

Giles Terera for Clyde’s

Luke Thompson for A Little Life

Zubin Varla for A Little Life

 

Best actress in a supporting role

Lorraine Ashbourne for Till the Stars Come Down 

Priyanga Burford for An Enemy of the People

Haydn Gwynne for When Winston Went to War With the Wireless - WINNER

Gina McKee for Dear England

Olivier Tanya Reynolds for A Mirror

 

Noël Coward award for best new entertainment or comedy play

Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Stranger Things: The First Shadow by Kate Trefry - WINNER

Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial, adapted by Liv Hennessy

 

Best Family Show 

Bluey’s Big Play by Joe Brumm 

Dinosaur World Live by Derek Bond - WINNER

The House With Chicken Legs adapted by Oliver Lansley

The Smeds and the Smoos adapted by Tall Stories

 

Gillian Lynne award for best theatre choreographer

Fabian Aloise for Sunset Boulevard

Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf for Dear England

Arlene Phillips with James Cousins for Guys and Dolls - WINNER

Mark Smith for The Little Big Things

Susan Stroman for Crazy for You

 

Best Costume Design

Bunny Christie and Deborah Andrews for Guys and Dolls

Ryan Dawson Laight for La Cage Aux Folles

Hugh Durrant for Peter Pan

Marg Horwell for The Picture of Dorian Gray - WINNER

 

Best Revival

The Effect by Lucy Prebble

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell 

Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Simon Stephens - WINNER

 

Best musical revival 

Groundhog Day, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin

Guys and Dolls, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows 

Hadestown, music, lyrics and book by Anaïs Mitchell

Sunset Boulevard, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton - WINNER

 

Best Sound Design

Paul Arditti for Stranger Things: The First Shadow 

Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbins for Dear England

Adam Fisher for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER 

Gareth Fry for Macbeth

 

Outstanding Musical Contribution

Tom Brady for Musical Supervision and Arrangements and Charlie Rosen for Orchestrations for Guys and Dolls 

Matt Brind for Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations for Just for One Day

Steve Sidwell for Orchestrations and Joe Bunker for Musical Direction for Operation Mincemeat

Alan Williams for Musical Supervision and Musical Direction for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER

 

Best set design  

Miriam Buether for Stranger Things: The First Shadow WINNER

Bunny Christie for Guys and Dolls

Es Devlin and Ash J Woodward Dear England

Soutra Gilmour and Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom for Sunset Boulevard 

 

Best lighting design

Jon Clark for Dear England

Jon Clark for Stranger Things: The First Shadow 

Paule Constable for Guys and Dolls

Jack Knowles for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER 

 

Best new opera production

Blue by the English National Opera 

Innocence by the Royal Opera - WINNER

Picture a Day Like This by the Royal Opera 

The Rhinegold by the English National Opera

 

Outstanding achievement in opera

Antonio Pappano for his role as Musical Director of the Royal Opera House - WINNER

Belarus Free Theatre Company for King Stakh’s Wild Hunt

Marina Abramović for 7 Deaths of Maria Callas 

 

Outstanding achievement in dance

Isabela Coracy for her performance in NINA: By Whatever Means, part of Ballet Black: Pioneers - WINNER

Jonzi D for his artistic direction of Breakin’ Convention 2023 International festival of hip-hop Dance theatre

Rhiannon Faith for her community focused conception of Lay Down Your Burdens at The Pit

 

Outstanding achievement in affiliate theatre

Blue Mist by Mohamed-Zain Dada at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court theatre

A Playlist for The Revolution by AJ Yi at the Bush theatre

Sleepova by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini at the Bush theatre - WINNER

The Swell by Isley Lynn at Orange Tree theatre

The Time Machine: A Comedy by Steven Canny and John Nicholson at the Park theatre

 

Sir Peter Hall award for best director

Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin for Stranger Things: The First Shadow at the Phoenix theatre

Rupert Goold for Dear England at the National Theatre – Olivier and Prince Edward theatre

Jamie Lloyd for Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy theatre - WINNER

Sam Mendes for The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre – Lyttelton and Noël Coward theatre