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Olivier,meet Oscar ... Lizzy Gardiner at the 1995 Academy Awards.Credit:Reuters

Tony Sheldon,nominated as best actor in a musical for his sensitive portrayal of Bernadette inPriscilla,lost out to Aneurin Barnard inSpring Awakening - which also beatPriscilla to the award for best new musical,and won awards for best sound design and best supporting actor for Iwan Rheon.

The night's biggest surprise wasThe Mountaintop being named best new play ahead of its more fancied rivals,Enron andJerusalem.

Written by the American playwright Katori Hall,The Mountaintop is an imagined account of Martin Luther King's last evening before his assassination in 1968.

It had its world premiere at the 65-seat Theatre503 above the Latchmere pub in Battersea,south London,before the producer Sonia Friedman took it to the West End.

Now Broadway beckons for Hall,the first black woman to receive the prize since the awards began in 1976,and only the fourth female.

Hall,28,said she was astonished that someone of her age could win an Olivier Award.

"I'm 28 years old,''she said.''I didn't even know who Laurence Olivier was. I was[thinking],'Who? Olivier?'"

She said that the play could be difficult to show in America because the depiction of King as a foul-mouthed man who is unfaithful to his wife would provoke a knee-jerk response.

''I think it will make some people mad,but it's going to ignite an interest in King.

''Although the story is fictionalised,it is all based in truth? He was a great man who accomplished great things,but I feel he's imperfect."

Hollywood stars including Jude Law,James McAvoy,James Earl Jones,Keira Knightley and Rowan Atkinson went home empty-handed. The exception was Rachel Weisz,who took the best actress honours for her role as Blanche DuBois inA Streetcar Named Desire.

Mark Rylance was named best actor for his portrayal of a tattooed drug dealer inJerusalem.

Clare Morgan and agencies

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