Mark Rylance follows Oscar with nomination at UK’s Oliviers

LONDON – Mark Rylance has followed his Academy Awards win with a nomination for best actor at London’s Laurence Olivier theatre awards.

Rylance, who took the best supporting actor Oscar for “Bridge of Spies,” was nominated for a best-actor Olivier Monday for playing an 18th-century Spanish monarch in “Farinelli and the King.”

He’s up against Benedict Cumberbatch for “Hamlet”; Kenneth Cranham for “The Father”; Kenneth Branagh for “The Winter’s Tale”; and Adrian Lester for “Red Velvet.”

Nicole Kidman scooped a best-actress nomination for playing Rosalind Franklin, one of the team who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, in “Photograph 51.”

The other contenders for the prize are Gemma Arterton for “Nell Gwynn”; Denise Gough for “People, Places And Things”; Janet McTeer for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”; and Lia Williams for “Oresteia.”

A revival of “Gypsy,” with eight nominations, and Broadway hit “Kinky Boots,” with seven, lead in the musical categories at the Oliviers, Britain’s equivalent of Broadway’s Tonys.

Six-time Olivier winner Judi Dench is nominated for best supporting actress for “The Winter’s Tale.”

Winners of the awards — which honour achievements in London theatre, musicals, dance and opera — will be announced during an April 3 ceremony at the Royal Opera House.