Olivier Awards 2012: It's been the year of the comedy musical It's been the year of the comedy, the year of the musical. The year, actually, of the comedy musical and the comedy so deft in its timing, phrasing and rhythm that it might almost be a musical. No surprises, then, to see that in the just-announced nominations list for this year's Olivier Awards - the winners will be announced on 15 April - there are five fantastic showings for One Man, Two Guvnors (Best New Play, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Set Design) and also for the huge matching hit from the National Theatre's friendly rival, the RSC, with Matilda The Musical (10 noms - count "em: Best Actress in a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Best Musical, Best Director, Best Theatre Choreographer, Best Lighting Design, Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design). It's fair to assume that these two shows - already romping home to long-runner status thanks to critical and public adulation - should do very well - although Matilda has strong co-contenders in the Best Musical category from the under-attended but highly praised Betty Blue Eyes, the sophisticated Ghost, the breakthrough verbatim musical London Road and even crowd-pleasing Shrek. In some senses, we're looking at the commercial triumph of the subsidised sector, as canny artistic directors with a populist touch, fling out the kind of projects that might in other more purist times have been the preserve of the West End impresario. But the blurring of boundaries has been to the theatre's broader benefit - the standard of work is high, the marriage of convenience between the two sides of theatre industry one that is reaping dividends for both. John Hodge's Collaborators at the Cottesloe - nominated in the Best Play category - stands out almost as the odd one out: Jumpy, which packed them in at the Royal Court, already has its West End transfer lined up, while the pricelessly funny The Ladykillers, despite producing input from the Liverpool Playhouse, plainly had commercial legs before it was even taking its first steps into Shaftesbury Avenue. If I was handing out the awards, Best Play would have to go either to Hodge's brutally amusing account of the relation between Stalin and Bulgakov (Collaborators) or April De Angelis" midlife crisis comedy Jumpy - as these are original dramas as distinct from the other two, very skilful adaptations. In the event, I suspect it will go to the standout hit One Man, Two Guvnors, although it's hardly as if that show needs any more awards to thrive at the boxoffice. What else? I'm really glad to see that Michael Grandage's superlative final season as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse has been properly acknowledged: in the Best Revival category, it's fielding O'Neill's Anna Christie, with the star of that exemplary production, Ruth Wilson, also joining the contenders for Best Actress. Douglas Hodge, who gave one of the most faultlessly assured performances of his career as the fractured, embattled lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's neglected Kafkaesque classic Inadmissible Evidence, would be the chap I'd most like to see get the gong in that category, although why Peter Capaldi - little less than a revelation in the Alec Guinness role in The Ladykillers - is not on that shortlist is beyond me; Jude Law, however brawnily persuasive in Anna Christie, looks rather like he's in the mix to lend some Hollywood glamour. It's hard of course not to get a touch cynical about the Oliviers - speculating on the kind of horse-trading that might have gone on during the notoriously opaque judging process. Overall, the choices look judicious - welcome nods for the excellent Flare Path, shining star of the Rattigan centenary, and its high-definition turn from the ever more rated Sheridan Smith, along with cheers for Frankenstein's two leads, Mike Leigh's Grief, Kristen Scott Thomas in Betrayal, which felt like a magisterial farewell to the late Harold Pinter, and the terrifically dotty-acting Celia Imrie in Noises Off, the creakiest of the farces London now has at its disposal. Whether Jerusalem, whose return in triumph was the West End event of the year, but already much awarded, needs a final salvo of applause in the Supporting Role category is a moot point and I'm sorry but passing wonderful though Sophie-Louise Dann was in Lend Me A Tenor at the Gielgud, the show stank. Am I allowed to say that? There's too much sycophancy shown to the Oliviers - vital though they are; the idea surely is that they stir up debate as much as anything - and this year it feels appropriate to take a leaf out of One Man, Two Guvnors" riotous book and hope that in the run-up to the awards we get a bunfight of opinions rather than mere passive, fawning acquiescence.