Patrons: David Babani Don Black Judi
Dench Maria Friedman Cameron Mackintosh Julia
McKenzie Paul Nicholas
Harold Prince Tim Rice
Jeremy Sams Stephen Sondheim Richard Stilgoe
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Latest News
information from the world of new musicals
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David McAlmont and Reece Shearsmith join MMD
posted 5 January 2010
David McAlmont, the celebrated singer/songwriter, known both as a solo artist and as half of the McAlmont and Butler pop duo, has become a Professional Writer Associate of MMD. At the same time, we also welcome West End star and TV writer/performer Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville).
This completes an impressive set of well-known recruits in 2009 which also included Stephen Fry, Tim Minchin, Dave Clark, Willy Rusell, Frank Lazarus and Sandy Wilson. You can find all their listings at the writers' page
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Writing Lab 3 Participants Selected
posted 4 January 2010
MMD’s Writing Lab continues into its third iteration, giving regular feedback and close attention to selected musical theatre writers, generously supported by The Fineman Trust. After a selection process in the Autumn, Writing Lab 3 will run from January to June 2010.
It will involve MMD Associates Rebecca Applin, Andrew Brinded, Tim Connor, Christine Denniston, Michael Dresser, Zachary Dunbar, Christopher Hamilton, Susannah Pearse, Tim Saward and Jenifer Toksvig.
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Tim Minchin Joins MMD
posted 29 November 2009
The Australian comic songwriter, currently working on a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda with the RSC, has become an MMD Associate. We are also delighted to welcome back former Mercury Workshop member Stephen Keeling.
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Mark Stevens, 1948-2009
posted 15 September 2009
MMD Associate Chris Larner writes: "Mark Stevens, composer and pianist, has died, after a brief but heroic battle with cancer. He was 61. He had composed much fine music for theatre, film and TV, and his skill and taste at the piano made him a session player of demand.
He and I collaborated on the music for many theatre shows, songs for film and TV: sometimes with Mark writing music and I lyrics, sometime with me having nominally written both but with Mark's guiding hand above my own querulous dots.
We started too late, he and I. Mark had, before I met him, already had a stellar career as a pianist, composer and MD, having worked with Tom Jones, Nelson Riddle, Sarah Vaughan, Chuck Berry and others too numerous to mention here. He and I wrote our first musical, The Translucent Frogs Of Quuup, in 2004 and it won The Guardian prize for Best Original Music. In this score, Mark brilliantly echoed musical styles and structures from the 1920s, recast in a modern idiom. Last year we wrote a second - and final - musical together, On The Island Of Aars, in which Mark wrote tunes of such spectacular beauty that I felt guilty setting lyrics to them.
Amongst Mark's film music, that for Best is particularly affecting.
His music was always hummable, considered, approachable and intelligent. His sensitivity and passion as a pianist is irreplaceable. I feel honoured to have worked with him. He had much more to give than his tragically curtailed life has allowed, but what remains is still testament to a towering talent.
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Michael Bruce Showcased in West End
posted 29 August 2009
MMD Associate Michael Bruce is to receive an unprecedented West End showcase on 1 November 2009, produced by Speckulation Entertainment.
The concert of his work, entitled "A Little Less Ordinary", on 1 November 2009 at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, will star Julie Atherton, Helena Blackman, Daniel Boys, Clare Foster, Alex Jessop, Sarah Lark and Paul Spicer.
Michael was the winner of the Notes for the Stage competition in 2007, which was co-promoted by West End show series Notes from New York and The Stage, Since winning the competition, this gifted young songwriter has been nurtured by the young producers behind it. His musical Ed has also just won an MTM Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.
MMD wishes Michael and team well with this very exciting event. Tickets can be bought from www.notesfromnewyork.com
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Stephen Fry Joins MMD
posted 31 July 2009
National treasure Stephen Fry, who is not best known for writing the book for Me And My Girl, but who nonetheless did so, has become a Professional Writer Associate of MMD. Other recent joins include veteran Sandy Wilson, composer, bookwriter and lyricist of The Boy Friend and Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five (who scored Time in the eighties). We are also delighted to welcome back to the MMD ranks Mary Stewart-David who was a member of the Mercury Workshop and took part in The Challenge.
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Olly Ashmore Wins Stiles and Drewe Prize
posted 31 May 2009
Olly Ashmore is the winner of the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Award 2009. Performed by Amy Payne, his winning song was called Wake Up TV, from his musical Hot Flush 2. Ashmore received a prize of 500 from judges George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, members of the MMD board. The songwriting prize was combined with the Stephen Sondheim Student Performer Prize, which was won by Michael Peavoy singing Finishing the Hat and also To Be A Man by MMD Associates Julian Chenery and Matt Gimblett. The competition took place on 31 May at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End.
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Woolford and John project debuts at Latitude
posted 22 May 2009
Terminal Four Play, a new 10 minute musical by Julian Woolford and Richard John will be produced by Theatre 503 at this year's Latitude Festival. The piece was one of three commissioned through MMD by Theatre 503 and Theatrevoice for their Urban Scrawl project, a series of 53 podcasts, each 10 minutes long, each one drawing inspiration from a different station on the Piccadilly Line.
Latitude Festival will host Urban Sprawl, live productions of 3 of the Urban Scrawl pieces, which will include Terminal Four Play: an r'n'b musical about security staff, suicide bombers and sex at Heathrow's Terminal Four. It will also be available as a podcast later in the year.
More details available from http://www.theatre503.com/urbanscrawl/. Tickets for Latitude available from http://www.latitudefestival.co.uk/tickets/index.aspx
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MMD writer's show selected for New York Musicals Festival
posted 21 May 2009
MMD writer Mark Robertson's show MARRYING MEG has been selected for this year's New York Musicals Festival. The show, twice a finalist in the Vivian Ellis prize, was selected by a grand jury that included composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown and directors Francesca Zambello and Kathleen Marshall. MARRYING MEG will now be staged in its entirety for the first time at a midtown Manhattan theatre in early October as part of the three week festival of new musicals. It is one of only two non-North American shows in this year's programme. Find out more at www.nymf.org.
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Shows Selected for The Works
posted 2 May 2009
The Noel Coward Foundation is supporting MMD's The Works, four readings of new musicals by some of the most exciting musical writing talent. The four shows will be Conor Mitchell's Old 100th, based on Gogol's Diary of a Madman, Olly Ashmore's comic take on A Christmas Carol, called Humbug!, Paul Graham Brown's show inspired by the Cottingley fairies, Fairystories, and Elliot Davis and Stephen Clark's enigmatically titled rock muscial, X. The readings will take place at the Grand Salon, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, this Summer, in front of invited audiences. Mercury Musical Developments is a charity that develops and platforms writers of new musical theatre.
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Burgess and Wright Win Recognition in Los Angeles
posted 27 March 2009
MMD Associates Chris Burgess and Denise Wright's musical Emerald was selected for second place in the ANMT 2009 Search for New Musicals. The show tells the story of an Irish-American woman who returns to the land of her ancestors, only to find herself haunted by the famed Black Pig. Emerald will receive an ANMT staff table reading and feedback session in May of 2009.
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Wythe Songs Showcased at What's On Stage Awards
posted 27 March 2009
Songs by MMD Associate Laurence Mark Wythe featured in the What's On Stage Awards on 15 February 2009.
Suranne Jones sang the song "Action Man" from The Lost Christmas which had an MMD sponsored RAM workshop session in 2007.
The other song was Julie Atherton singing "The Window" from Through the Door, which also had an RAM session in 2008. Both shows later appeared at the 2008 Perfect Pitch event.
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Departure Lounge Wins Edinburgh Musical Theatre Award
posted 10 August 2008
MMD Associate Dougal Irvine's holiday-themed show Departure Lounge was nominated for nominated for all five of the MTM:UK awards in Edinburgh and won for Best Music in a new musical. The show was previously featured in 2006's Perfect Pitch Festival and produced at the Arts Theatre, London.
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Writing Lab Xtreme Participants Selected
posted 8 August 2008
Seven writers have been selected to receive feedback in MMD's new Writing Lab Xtreme venture, benefiting from feedback from experienced industry professionals including Jeremy Sams, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The associates selected are Rebecca Applin, Mark Bunyan, Michael Bruce, Michael Dresser, Alex Loveless, Susannah Pearse and Tim Saward. The sessions will be facilitated by MMD Associate (and BMI Lehman Engel workshop almuna) Christine Denniston.
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Osner and Cooper Musical Selected for Developmental Reading
posted 5 August 2008
Clearspace Productions will be undertaking a developmental reading of BB Cooper and Nigel Osner's musical for children, Goblins Don't Scare Us. The reading will take place in Delaware, US, this Autumn, with potential for further development into a new production.
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Xtreme Measures with New Feedback Group
posted 1 July 2008
MMD has launched a search for promising musical theatre composers to become part of its new "Writing Lab Xtreme" opportunity. The programme, in its pilot phase, will take on a small group of participants for eight fortnightly sessions in each of which they will create a new song or scene, which will receive feedback from other group participants and guest directors and MDs. This pilot is an expansion of MMD's regular "Writing Lab" opportunity, an occasional opportunity for associate writers to bring work-in-progress along for critique from their peers. It will run from October until February 2009.
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MMD Associates' Work Selected for Delaware New Writing Festival
posted 30 June 2008
Clearspace Productions in Delaware have selected the work of five MMD associates to be part of an evening of ten new songs. The selected songs are No Answer by Tim Saward and Darren Wayte, Smallville Colorado and Don't Go by Julian Woolford and Richard John, Sounds Like a Plan by Charles Bloom and More than Life Itself by Teresa Howard and (non-MMD) Stephen Edis. The performance of the songs will take place on 17 November.
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Gareth Gates to Star in Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe
posted 25 June 2008
It has just been announced that pop star Gareth Gates will make a guest appearance in the gala performance A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket on 6 July, in support of MMD. He joins Olivier Award winners Joanna Riding, Clive Rowe and Leanne Jones, TV favourites Helena Blackman and Daniel Boys, stars of Wicked James Gillan and Oliver Tompsett, much-loved Mary Poppins star Scarlett Strallen, Julie Atherton who originated the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in Avenue Q, Jerry Springer legend Alison Jiear and musical theatre stalwart Claire Moore. The concert celebrates 25 years of songwriting by the award-winning duo of musical theatre composer George Stiles and lyricist Anthony Drewe, who are founder members of MMD. Tickets are available at all prices, starting at 20, but we hope that some of our friends will support us by buying VIP tickets at 100 each. Proceeds will go to fund our much-needed development work, nurturing the next generation of musical theatre writers. A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe takes to the stage at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End for one night only on Sunday 6 July 2008. Call the Box Office on 0844 412 4657 or visit speckulationentertainment.com to book your tickets online.
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Mark Allcorn Takes Best New Song Award
posted 1 June 2008
Mark Allcorn was the winner of the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Award 2008. Performed by Laura Kerr, his winning song was called My Turn Soon, from his musical Swimming With Dolphins. Allcorn received a prize of 500 from judges George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, members of the MMD board. The songwriting prize was combined with the Stephen Sondheim Student Performer Prize, which was won by Adrian Grove singing Marry Me A Little and also A Kid From Nowhere by MMD Associate Paul Graham Brown. The competition took place on 1 June at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End.
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Stiles and Drewe Give Gala Concert In Support of MMD
posted 25 May 2008
Friends of MMD can support our work into the future by coming to A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe, at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, staged in support of MMD.The concert celebrates 25 years of songwriting by the award-winning duo of musical theatre composer George Stiles and lyricist Anthony Drewe, who are founder members of MMD. Tickets are available at all prices, starting at 20, but we hope that some of our friends will support us by buying VIP tickets at 100 each.Proceeds will go to fund our much-needed development work, nurturing the next generation of musical theatre writers. A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe takes to the stage at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End for one night only on Sunday 6 July 2008. Olivier Award winners Joanna Riding, Clive Rowe and Leanne Jones are joined by TV favourites Helena Blackman and Daniel Boys, stars of Wicked James Gillan and Oliver Tompsett, much-loved Mary Poppins star Scarlett Strallen, Julie Atherton who originated the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in Avenue Q, Jerry Springer legend Alison Jiear and musical theatre stalwart Claire Moore. Call the Box Office on 0844 412 4657 or visit speckulationentertainment.com to book your tickets online.
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ICA Showcase for MMD Writers
posted 15 May 2008
MMD associates' work will feature in a special showcase of new musical theatre songs at the Accidental Festival 2008 at the ICA. A few different musical writing teams will be showcased in this event, one of a number run by students from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Work from MMD Associates Mark Bunyan, Clive Burton, Roberto Trippini, Tim Saward, Darren Deeks and Michael Bruce will be performed. Tickets can be purchased at the the ICA website or call 020 7930 3647.
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Stiles and Drewe Songwriting Prize Announced, and Student Performer Competition Moves
posted 1 May 2008
The Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of 2008 Prize has been moved to The Trafalgar Studios, a larger venue, and will go ahead, as previously confirmed on Sunday 1 June 2008. In addition, successful songwriting team (and MMD board members) George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have announced that they will be awarding a prize to the writer(s) of the best new song featured by a performer in the competition. MMD Associates have previously submitted works for the competition and of those, the student performers will select one each to complement their performance of a Sondheim song.
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Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg Visit MMD
posted 25 February 2008
The celebrated team behind the world's longest-running musical, Les Misérables, as well as Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre and the forthcoming Marguerite (to run from May at the Haymarket Theatre), are joining MMD associates for a discussion event in April. Associates will have a chance to ask questions about the team's working method and to hear about their history in musical theatre.
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Date Announced for Sondheim Student Performer Competition
posted 15 February 2008
Our associates' work will feature in the second Sondheim Society Student Performer Prize 2008. Student performers will each sing a song by Sondheim and a new musical theatre song by an MMD Associate. Last year's competition, at The Venue was considered a great success. This year's competition moves to the Arts Theatre, near Leicester Square and will be on Sunday 1 June at 3pm.
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William Brohn to Address MMD Associates
posted 31 January 2008
Celebrated Broadway and West End orchestrator William Brohn, known for his orchestrations of Curtains, Wicked, Mary Poppins, Ragtime, Martin Guerre, Miss Saigon and many others, will talk alongside composer George Stiles in February about the process of orchestrating in a meeting exclusively for MMD Associates. William will be in London working on the orchestrations for the new musical Gone With The Wind.
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MMD / Stranmillis University Writing Residency 08
posted 12 December 2007
MMD is delighted to announce the 2008 MMD / Stranmillis University College Writing Residency in Belfast. Now in its fifth year, this fantastic opportunity is a loosely-structured writing programme to initiate and nurture the composition and writing of original musical theatre. Yet another great reason to join us!
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Woolford and John's Comrade Rockstar Workshopped
posted 1 November 2007
Arts Educational Schools are currently workshopping the new musical 'Comrade Rockstar' by MMD Associates Richard John and Julian Woolford. This show includes the song 'Smallville Colorado' which was the MMD song sung by Carl Au when he won the Sondheim Student Singer Competition earlier in the year.
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The Works, 2007 - New Musicals in development
posted 1 October 2007
MMD is proud to present a third series of new musical readings, sponsored by The Noel Coward Foundation With additional support from Really Useful Theatres at the Dome Room, Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, London WC1.
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MMD Guidelines
posted 8 August 2007
The Backstage Area of the MMD website, which is exclusively for MMD Associates, includes a section of MMD Guidelines about all aspects of the business of writing musical theatre. We've just added a new Guideline on acquiring stage rights to an existing film or book for adaptation into a musical. Other MMD Guidelines include advice on agents, collaboration agreements, and how to handle production and publishing deals. If you'd like to have access to these invaluable Guidelines, please consider joining us. If you're already an MMD Associate, check it out!
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