David Tennant misses out on Olivier Awards for Hamlet

Douglas Hodge (pictured) and Denis Lawson, the two leads in the hit West End musical La Cage aux Folles, are competing for best actor in a musical in this year’s Olivier theatre awards.  Both men have since left the cast, which is now headed by TV presenter Graham Norton and Stephen Pacey as the gay lovers, Albin and Georges.

The drag-queen show was nominated in a total of seven categories when the shortlist was released today, including best musical, for which it is up against Sunset Boulevard, the Donmar Warehouse production of Piaf and West Side Story. (Sophia Escobar, who plays Maria in the latter, is up for best musical actress.)

The Donmar has secured 13 nominations for its various productions. Among them are both Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton for best actress in Enid Bagnold’s play, The Chalk Garden. Wilton's performance as Miss Madrigal was praised by the Times in a four-star review as a "masterpiece of economy".

Other big names up for honours include Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night, Michael Gambon for his performance in the late Harold Pinter's No Man's Land, and Lindsay Duncan - who is to play Lady Thatcher in a forthcoming BBC2 drama series - for her role in That Face by the young playwright Polly Stenham.

One man who might have been expected to feature in the best actor shortlist but doesn’t get a look-in is David Tennant. The Doctor Who actor received rave reviews for his Hamlet in the acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production, but because of the back problem he suffered in December he was not able to perform enough times to qualify for the Oliviers. However, his co-stars, Patrick Stewart and Oliver Ford Davies, are both shortlisted for best supporting role. ·