Michael Ball hosting Olivier Awards in April

Michael Ball is to host this year's Olivier Awards which are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and will be held at London's Royal Opera House on 3rd April. He will also be hosting the nominations announcement, taking place at noon on 29th February. The announcement will be streamed live at www.olivierawards.com

The West End singer and presenter was made an OBE last month, previously co-hosted the awards in 2011 and 2012 has previously won two Oliviers - for best actor in a musical in 2008 for Hairspray and in 2013 for Sweeney Todd.

The 16 shows in the running for the award are: Beautiful - The Carole King Musical; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Jersey Boys; Disney's The Lion King; Mamma Mia!; Matilda the Musical; Les Miserables; The Mousetrap; The Phantom of the Opera; The Railway Children; Stomp; Sunny Afternoon; The Play that Goes Wrong; The Woman in Black and Thriller Live.

Last year's big winners were Kinks-inspired musical Sunny Afternoon and drama A View From the Bridge, with Dame Angela Lansbury winning her first Olivier Award for her role as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, her first West End role in nearly 40 years.

Voting opened on Tuesday for the Magic Radio Audience Award, the only Olivier voted on by the public.