Since launching in 2024, our Musical Theatre Writers Group has been dedicated to creating new pieces of musical theatre. Compromising of six writing teams, the group has since developed original musicals under Birmingham Hippodrome’s mentorship, led by writer and dramaturg Victoria Saxton and composer and musical director Tim Sutton. The programme culminated in the New Musicals Showcase earlier this month, featuring extracts of their shows in our Patrick Studio.

We sat down with Deirdre O’Halloran, Head of New Musicals to reflect on the last 12 months.

Hi Deirdre, tell us more about the group…

“There’s a good amount of people from the West Midlands in the group, which is fabulous as we didn’t set location as a criterion for applicants and were driven by what ideas were the most interesting. Many West Midlanders who ended up as part of the group just had the best ideas in their applications!

“The group is incredibly diverse – It was gorgeous to witness everybody have their own special moments that were individual to them because they all had completely different journeys. Everyone’s learnings were really distinct because they got to come with different skills and leave with brand new ones.

“For example, one of our group members, Nathan, is a brilliant music producer who mostly works in the hip-hop realm. And so for him, the moment that somebody put a score in his hands of something he’d written was absolutely magical. Whereas there’s other people who are really used to having everything written on a score and so for them, the thing that was special was watching dots on a page come to life with actors and a band.”

How was the New Musicals Showcase received?

“It’s such an exciting and vulnerable moment for artists when pieces are shared in public for the first time. To get to invite the incredibly passionate Birmingham musicals audience to the showcase alongside industry experts was fantastic. Birmingham audiences are the best – they always come ready to have a good time and so the vibe in the room was fantastic. The audience members were so excited to be there and are incredibly passionate about the fact that new musicals are being developed, especially in their locality.

“I think there’s a real pride that our audiences have about what we’re making. And I think it’s so important that they’re involved in our processes because they’re the people that we want to please. So, I feel the writers also learned a lot from what things people were leaning into and laughing at.”

Tell us more about the teams…

“The Cambridge First All–Ladies Fire Brigade – this team are all super into science. Helen Arney is the lyricist and her background is in stand up comedy with a science focus! Brian and Jenni are also both educators, so they’re all used to boiling down difficult big concepts into something that feels very accessible and interesting for an audience.

“Nathan Lawrence and Lakesha Arie-Angelo (both Wolverhampton natives) are writing A Very Serious Unserious Black Hair Court Room Drama, The Musical. Lakesha is very much from a theatre background: she directed our co-production of The Color Purple that toured in 2022 and has worked on a lot in plays, and so she’s coming at things from what they look like and feel like on stage. Whereas Nathan’s a music producer and so it’s a really good blend of different experiences.

“Nyasha Gudo, Aron Sood and David Payne, are another all West Midlands team, and they are writing Reality Bites. What they have is a really great pop aesthetic. They can really write a banger. They are taking a very acerbic view of reality TV which is interesting and funny.

“Matthew Harvey and Ryan Carter, who are writing Reveries are a really interesting team because they’re both performers. They write songs and scenes that are really satisfying to perform because they know what it’s like when you get a script and want a really enjoyable arc, so they bring a complexity and finesse to everything they do.

“This is My Name is a new show by Melisa Camba and Dominique La Victoria. They are incredibly passionate about their subject matter and are so excited to introduce the story of this Filipino historical character called Maria del Rosario Gil y Montes de Sanchis whose story has been lost in history. The honouring of that person with their kind of imagined history is really gorgeous and quite exciting.

“And then we’ve got Pit Stop and Wash. Tyriq Baker, Kristal Malin-Sheppard and Gaby Songui are also all from the Midlands and what I like about them is that they’re coming at things from a completely kooky, different angle. They’ve never written a musical before and so they soaked up all the learnings in the writers group and were fantastic. They’re infusing their show with Brazilian music and it’s enormously charming.”

Now the programme has come to an end, what’s next for the group?

“We’re making sure we continue to support everyone’s development as they go forward into the industry. These artists trusted us to become a home for them and their work, and we’re incredibly proud to have worked with them over the last 12 months. It’s been a truly fantastic process.”