And their most junior member, 10-year-old Eleanor Worthington Cox, from Merseyside became the youngest Olivier winner in history.

Fellow winner Cleo Demetriou is also 10, but a few weeks older, and the other two actresses, Kerry Ingram and Sophia Kiely, are both 12.

The Roald Dahl adaptation by the Royal Shakespeare Company also beat the record number of awards for a single show, winning seven awards and beating The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, which won six categories in 1980.

Tim Minchin, who adapted the book for stage, got the award for Best New Musical, and Best Actor in a Musical went to Bertie Carvel for her role as Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress.

Best Director went to Matthew Warchus and the musical also snagged awards for choreography, set design and sound.

Previously, the youngest Olivier Awards holders were the boys from Billy Elliot, who were aged 13-15 when they shared the Best Actor prize in 2006.

Child labour laws mean the girls have to take it in turns to play Matilda, performing two shows a week, and the two older girls will leave the production to focus on school work.

But the girls beat veteran actresses including Sarah Lancashire, 47, Kat Fleetwood, 39, and Scarlett Strallen, 29, to the awards.

Worthington Cox’s school principal, Hayley Batchelor-Hannah said: “She came along to the baby class and just took to it like a duck to water. It was a little music and movement class for pre-schoolers and early on you could see she had something about her.

“It’s not just talent – lots of children are talented but she also had the right approach to everything. She listens and gets on with it. And you could tell it was her choice to be there, it wasn’t something her mum had pushed her into. She was a pleasure to teach.”

Other awards went to Ruth Wilson, named best actress for her title role in Anna Christie, and Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, who shared the best actor prize for Frankenstein.