Haydn Gwynne, Kerry Ellis and More Set for Mercury Musical Developments' 20th Anniversary Gala

On 14th October 2012 Mercury Musical Developments will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a Gala Concert celebrating British musical theatre past, present and future, for one night only, at the Novello Theatre.

Musical theatre luminaries including Willy Russell, Charles Hart and Stiles & Drewe, together with a number of emerging writers, will be introducing new songs at the event. These will be performed by stars including Janie Dee, Sally Anne Triplett, Kerry Ellis, David Bedella, Haydn Gwynne, Paul Kaye and Jenna Russell.

The evening is a celebration of British shows past, present and future by MMD members including songs from Our Day Out (Willy Russell), Meantime (Douglas Hodge), Soapdish (Stiles & Drewe), French Without Tears (Charles Hart), The Buskers Opera (Dougal Irvine), The Go Between (Richard Taylor and David Wood), One Man Two Guvnors (Grant Olding) Matilda (Tim Minchin), Billy (Don Black and John Barry) The Boyfriend (Sandy Wilson) A Day In Hollywood a Night In The Ukraine (Frank Lazarus and Dick Vosburgh), The Challenge (Howard Goodall) and other shows by MMD Members.

‘The Sidney Brown Memorial Award for Most Promising New Work’ will also be presented at the event.

MMD is a registered charity, dedicated to the craft of writing books, music and lyrics for musical theatre, which joined the Arts Council Portfolio this year in partnership with Musical Theatre Network www.mercurymusicals.com.

MMD started in 1992 when founding members studied with Stephen Sondheim at Oxford when he was The Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Contemporary Theatre. Early members of the organisation includEd Howard Goodall, Charles Hart, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe and Kit Hesketh Harvey.

MMD now has over 250 members ranging from the experienced to the emerging including; Sandy Wilson, Willy Russell, Don Black, Tim Rice, Diane Samuels, Richard Stilgoe, Sam Adamson, Stephen Fry, Brian May, Gwyneth Herbert, Grant Olding, DougalIrvine, Conor Mitchell, Stephen Fry, Osnat Schmool, Tim Sutton, Douglas Hodge, Stuart Matthew-Price, Adam Cork, Richard Taylor, Tim Minchin, Richard Thomas, Steve Brown, David Mcalmont, David Arnold, Dave Stewart, Helen Edmundson and many others.