Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer

The Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in professional 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.

Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer
Awarded for	Best Theatre Choreographer
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First award	1991
Currently held by	Christopher Wheeldon for MJ the Musical (2025)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

This award was introduced in 1991 as the Best Theatre Choreographer award and was renamed in honor of English choreographer Gillian Lynne in 2023.^[1]

Winners and nominees

1990s

Year	Choreographer	Production
1991
	Charles Augins	Five Guys Named Moe
	Terry John Bates	Dancing at Lughnasa
	Lawrence Evans	The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus
1992
	Rafael Aguilar	Matador
	Steven Berkoff	The Trial
	The Dancers	Tango Argentino
	Anthony Van Laast	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
1993
	Susan Stroman	Crazy for You
	Kenneth MacMillan	Carousel
	Marcello Magni	The Street of Crocodiles
	Tommy Tune	Grand Hotel
1994
	Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas	Stomp!
	Welcome Msomi	Tamburlaine the Great
	Arlene Phillips	Grease
	Anthony Van Laast	The Beggar's Opera
1995
	David Atkins and Dein Perry	Hot Shoe Shuffle
	Jonathan Lunn	Pericles
	Rob Marshall	She Loves Me
	David Toguri	Once on This Island
1996
	Dein Perry	Tap Dogs
	Lars Bethke	Fame
	Wayne McGregor	A Little Night Music
1997
	Bob Avian	Martin Guerre
	Wayne Cilento	Tommy
1998
	Simon McBurney	The Caucasian Chalk Circle
	Rob Marshall	Damn Yankees
	Ann Reinking	Chicago
	Matt West	Beauty and the Beast
1999
	Susan Stroman	Oklahoma!
	Loukmaan Adams and Jody Abrahams	Kat and the Kings
	Peter Gennaro	Annie
	Arlene Phillips	Saturday Night Fever

2000s

Year	Choreographer	Production
2000
	Garth Fagan	The Lion King
	Peter Darling	Candide
	Craig Revel Horwood	Spend Spend Spend
	Stephen Mear	Soul Train
2001
	Bob Fosse and Ann Reinking	Fosse
	Peter Darling	Merrily We Roll Along
	Stephen Mear	Singin' in the Rain
	Meryl Tankard	The Beautiful Game
2002
	Matthew Bourne	My Fair Lady
	Irving Davies	The Play What I Wrote
	Scarlett Mackmin	Privates on Parade
	Kathleen Marshall	Kiss Me, Kate
2003
	Matthew Bourne and Company	Play Without Words
	Peter Darling	Our House
	Craig Revel Horwood	My One and Only
	Susan Stroman	Contact
2004
	Karen Bruce	Pacific Overtures
	Jenny Arnold	Jerry Springer
	Rob Ashford	Thoroughly Modern Millie
2005
	Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear	Mary Poppins
	Adam Cooper	Grand Hotel
	Susan Stroman	The Producers
2006
	Peter Darling	Billy Elliot
	Rob Ashford	Guys and Dolls
2007
	Javier de Frutos	Cabaret
	Rob Ashford	Evita
	Bill Deamer	The Boy Friend
	Stephen Mear	Sinatra
2008
	Toby Sedgwick	War Horse
	Rob Ashford	Parade
	Jerry Mitchell	Hairspray
	Casey Nicholaw	The Drowsy Chaperone
2009
	Steven Hoggett	Black Watch
	Rafael Amargo	Zorro
	Lynne Page	La Cage aux Folles
	Kate Prince	Into the Hoods
	Sergio Trujillo	Jersey Boys

2010s

Year	Choreographer	Production
2010
	Stephen Mear	Hello, Dolly!
	Matthew Bourne	Oliver!
	Bill T. Jones	Spring Awakening
	Anthony Van Laast	Sister Act
2011
	Leon Baugh	Sucker Punch
	Bill T. Jones	Fela!
	Stephen Mear	Sweet Charity
	Jerry Mitchell	Legally Blonde
2012
	Peter Darling	Matilda
	Javier de Frutos	London Road
	Stephen Mear	Crazy for You
	Andrew Wright	Singin' in the Rain
2013
	Bill Deamer	Top Hat
	Scott Ambler	Chariots of Fire
	Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
	Stephen Mear	Kiss Me, Kate
2014
	Casey Nicholaw	The Book of Mormon
	Peter Darling	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
	Steven Hoggett	Once
	Susan Stroman	The Scottsboro Boys
2015
	Sergio Trujillo	Memphis
	Jerry Mitchell	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
	Annie-B Parson	Here Lies Love
	Josh Prince	Beautiful
2016
	Drew McOnie	In the Heights
	Carlos Acosta and Andrew Wright	Guys and Dolls
	Stephen Mear	Gypsy
	Jerry Mitchell	Kinky Boots
2017
	Matthew Bourne	The Red Shoes
	Peter Darling and Ellen Kane	Groundhog Day
	Steven Hoggett	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
	Drew McOnie	Jesus Christ Superstar
2018
	Andy Blankenbuehler	Hamilton
	Bill Deamer	Follies
	Kate Prince	Everybody's Talking About Jamie
	Randy Skinner	42nd Street
	Christopher Wheeldon	An American in Paris
2019
	Kelly Devine	Come from Away
	Christopher Gattelli	The King and I
	Carrie-Anne Ingrouille	Six
	Liam Steel	Company

2020s

Year	Choreographer	Production
2020
	Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear	Mary Poppins
	Fabian Aloise	Evita
	Matt Cole (based on original choreography by Jerome Robbins)	Fiddler on the Roof
	Jennifer Weber	& Juliet
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic[A]
2022[A]
	Kathleen Marshall	Anything Goes
	Finn Caldwell	Life of Pi
	Julia Cheng	Cabaret
	Sonya Tayeh	Moulin Rouge!
2023
	Matt Cole	Newsies
	Lynne Page	Standing at the Sky's Edge
	Kate Prince	Sylvia
	Basil Twist	My Neighbour Totoro
2024
	Arlene Phillips with James Cousins	Guys and Dolls
	Fabian Aloise	Sunset Boulevard
	Ellen Kane & Hannes Langolf	Dear England
	Mark Smith	The Little Big Things
	Susan Stroman	Crazy for You
2025
	Christopher Wheeldon	MJ the Musical
	Matthew Bourne	Oliver!
	Julia Cheng	Fiddler on the Roof
	Hofesh Shechter	Oedipus

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 for Best Theatre Choreographer

Awards

Five awards

• Matthew Bourne

Three awards

• Stephen Mear

Two awards

• Peter Darling
• Susan Stroman

Nominations

Ten nominations

• Stephen Mear

Seven nominations

• Matthew Bourne
• Peter Darling

Six nominations

• Susan Stroman

Four nominations

• Rob Ashford
• Steven Hoggett
• Jerry Mitchell

Three nominations

• Bill Deamer
• Arlene Phillips
• Kate Prince
• Anthony Van Laast

Two nominations

• Fabian Aloise
• Julia Cheng
• Matt Cole
• Javier de Frutos
• Craig Revel Horwood
• Bill T. Jones
• Ellen Kane
• Kathleen Marshall
• Rob Marshall
• Casey Nicholaw
• Lynne Page
• Dein Perry
• Ann Reinking
• Christopher Wheeldon
• Andrew Wright

See also

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography
• Tony Award for Best Choreography