The winner is Ashton Moore with song ‘Time’ from the musical Work Wife. 

Mercury Musical Developments and Stiles + Drewe and in partnership with PW Productions are delighted to announce the winner of the Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize 2025. Twelve finalist songs from new British musicals were presented on Tuesday 25th November at The Other Palace, in a concert hosted by Oscar Conlon-Morrey. The twelve songs were selected from 230 submissions by a large panel of industry judges.  

The judging panel, comprising of Anthony Drewe, George Stiles, Joanne Benjamin, Melanie La Barrie and Pippa Cleary awarded the Best New Song Prize to Ashton Moore (music and lyrics) who receives £1000 towards developing his work. The song was performed by Tom Dickerson, who had valiantly stepped in to learn the song on the day of the concert itself, due to cast illness.

A £250 prize for Vision, Voice and Potential was awarded to Oli Adcock and Zach Burns for their song ‘And Begin’ from For All Time. An additional runner up prize of £250 was awarded to Tyler McKinnon, Chantelle Micallef Grimaud and Zoë Farrugia for their song ‘Sunbird’ from Immigration Crisis: The Musical.  

The concert also celebrated three recent or upcoming new British musicals, featuring songs from Ballad Lines, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Hot Mess. Audiences were also treated to host Oscar Conlon-Morrey’s barnstorming rendition of ‘Reviewing the Situation’ from Oliver!.

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe said, “The Stiles + Drewe Best Song Prize has now celebrated its 18th year. Every year we think it can’t be as good as last year, and every year it exceeds expectations. 2025 was no exception – the quality of the song writing, coupled with some extraordinary performances, made for an amazing evening celebrating new musical theatre writing. Subject matters ranged from the immigration crisis to a child in danger of losing their creative imagination, and musically, the variety of styles truly ran the gamut from classical lyric musical theatre to a full-out pop/rap banger. With the MMD-nurtured Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York having just opened on Broadway, we think we can safely say that musical theatre writing in the UK has never felt more exciting – anything is possible.” 

Photo credit Ian Bowkett.