Although he was last seen having to decide whether to disobey either Ren’s or Hux’s orders in The Last Jedi, as his character Jober Tavson, it’s possible that Michael Jibson may have been even more nervous at last nights Olivier awards when Alexandra Burke opened the envelope containing the name of “best actor in a supporting role in a musical”.
You may have read in our article last week Michael was nominated for his role as King George in Hamilton and the competition was strong. His fellow nominees were Ross Noble for his role in Young Frankenstein as well as Hamilton performers, and colleagues, Jason Pennycooke & Cleve September. However, seconds later we all heard Alexandra Burke say a sentence that surely will always stay in Michael’s memory forever:
“and the award goes to ……… Michael Jibson for Hamilton”.
Any nerves must have then turned into joy as Michael took to the stage to accept his award (only pausing to hug his fellow Hamilton nominees). In accepting his award he firstly showed his support to both the Times Up and Era 50:50 campaigns before giving his short speech.
“I am going to read! I play a King who does public speaking but I am not very good at that so…… Thanks to the society for this. It’s incredible to be a part of this group of amazing nominees. I spend just 8 minutes on stage as King George in Hamilton but its a complete team effort. Big thanks to everyone on stage and backstage at the VP (Victoria Palace) the team at the front of house and the builders. Especially the producers and the creative team, Tommy, Alex, Andy and the genius that is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Watching you guys collaborate on this has been truly truly inspirational, thank you for making musical theatre cool again.
Thanks to my favorite collaborators, to my family and friends. Caroline I love you and Flora – Mummy and Daddy are very proud of you. Special thanks to Cameron Mackintosh for opening a letter from a lad from Hull who wanted to play the King! Thank you.”
And with that he was taken backstage (we assume to talk to the press about his award!).
If you read last weeks article you will know that Fantha Trackers Paul McQue and myself went to the award ceremony and I am pleased to say we bumped into Michael after the show. He was incredibly friendly and completely wrong footed me by introducing himself and saying he knew who were as he had read last weeks piece!
We let him know that as Star Wars fans there is always a large community who are pleased to see people who work on, or appear in, the films do well outside of the Galaxy Far Far Away.
So all that remains to say is well done to Olivier Award Winner Michael Jibson – we really hope to see you back on the screen in Episode IX (but I suspect now Jober Tavson will have had to have been promoted to reflect your real life status!)
