Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director

The Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial 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.

Introduced in 1976 as the award for Best Director, it was renamed in 2018 in honor of acclaimed theatre director Sir Peter Hall, beginning with the 2019 award ceremony.

In 1991, the category was briefly retired and divided into the categories Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical. These two categories were in turn retired in 1995, and the Best Director award was reinstated.

Robert Icke became the Best Director award's youngest ever winner in 2016; Deborah Warner, the 1988 recipient, had previously been the youngest winner.

Only five women have ever won the award: Deborah Warner, Marianne Elliott, Lyndsey Turner, Miranda Cromwell, and Rebecca Frecknall.

Multiple awards and nominations
Note: This list of multiple awards and nominations includes individuals awarded and nominated for the Best Director award (1976–1990, 1996–present), as well as the short-lived (1991–1995) more granular pair of awards for Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical.

Awards

 * Three awards
 * Howard Davies
 * Stephen Daldry
 * Declan Donnellan
 * Richard Eyre
 * Sam Mendes


 * Two awards
 * Michael Bogdanov
 * Rupert Goold
 * Terry Hands
 * Nicholas Hytner
 * Trevor Nunn
 * Deborah Warner
 * Marianne Elliott
 * John Tiffany

Nominations

 * Eleven nominations
 * Sam Mendes
 * Ten nominations
 * Richard Eyre
 * Trevor Nunn
 * Six nominations
 * Stephen Daldry
 * Howard Davies
 * Nicholas Hytner


 * Five nominations
 * Declan Donnellan
 * Rupert Goold
 * Michael Grandage
 * Adrian Noble
 * Marianne Elliott


 * Four nominations
 * Michael Blakemore
 * Ian Rickson
 * Matthew Warchus


 * Three nominations
 * Michael Bogdanov
 * Bill Bryden
 * Dominic Cooke
 * Terry Hands
 * Simon McBurney
 * Peter Wood
 * Rebecca Frecknall
 * John Tiffany

• Bill Alexander
 * Two nominations

• Alan Ayckbourn

• John Barton

• Matthew Bourne

• John Caird

• Jeremy Herrin

• Ian Judge

• Barry Kyle

• Jamie Lloyd

• Phyllida Lloyd

• Justin Martin

• Sean Mathias

• Des McAnuff

• Christopher Morahan

• Rufus Norris

• Steven Pimlott

• Harold Prince

• Susan Stroman

• David Thacker

• Deborah Warner
 * Phelim McDermott