Hannah Waddingham To Present Awards For SONDHEIM SOCIETY

West End star Hannah Waddingham will host a prestigious awards ceremony, now in its fourth year, on Sunday 6^th June at The Queens Theatre, London. The Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer Of The Year Competition & The Stiles and Drewe Best New Song of 2010 Awards are presented by The Stephen Sondheim Society and Mercury Musical Developments (MMD).

The awards strive to showcase the most exciting new talent and best new musical theatre writing by selecting 12 promising students from a selection of musical theatre training schools based throughout the United Kingdom. Participants from colleges such as RADA will perform on the stage of The Queen's Theatre, the current home of Les Misérables. Candidates will be judged by their performances of a Stephen Sondheim song and one new song written by a team from MMD. An expert panel will award the prizes for Best Performer and Best New Song.

Hannah Waddingham (Spamalot, A Little Night Music) will host the event and will also be performing. Prizes (including The Student Performer Award donated by Keith Stanley) will be presented by Julia McKenzie, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (the composer/lyricist team behind the Olivier Award winning Honk!, Mary Poppins and the West End bound Betty Blue Eyes). The judging panel includes music journalist for The Independent Edward Seckerson, actress and singer Sally Ann Triplett, musical director and arranger Martin Koch and casting agent David Grindrod. 

Mercury Musical Developments is an organisation dedicated to improving the craft of composers, lyricists and book-writers working in musical theatre. The organisation presents a range of developmental opportunities, networking events, seminars and classes. 

The organisation membership includes established practitioners such as Sandy Wilson (author of The Boyfriend), Stiles and Drewe (Honk!, Mary Poppins), Howard Goodall (composer of The Hired Man), Terry Davies (Edward Scissorhands), Tony Award-winning arranger Sarah Travis, Brian May and Ben Elton (We Will Rock You) and Willy Russell (Blood Brothers and Our Day Out). Many members also come from the world of comedy (composer and lyricist Tim Minchin; Stephen Fry), performance (lyricist David McAlmont; Reece Shearsmith) and writing including emerging playwrights Conor Mitchell, Grant Olding, Dougal Irvine and Michael Bruce (both winners of Best New Musical at Edinburgh for 2008 and 2009 respectively).  

Patrons of Mercury Musical Developments include Stephen Sondheim, Cameron Mackintosh, Judi Dench, Maria Friedman, Julia McKenzie, Richard Stilgoe, Don Black, David Babani, Jeremy Sams, Paul Nicholas and Harold Prince. 

BOOKING INFORMATION 

The Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer Of The Year Competition & The Stiles and Drewe Best New Song of 2010 Award 

Sunday 6th June at 3pm

at The Queens Theatre, London

CURRENT AND FORTHCOMING INITIATIVES FOR 2010: 

The Works Readings

Beginning in March 2010 and supported by The Noel Coward Foundation, a series of readings presenting new writing from MMD members, will take place at The Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Invited audiences will have the chance to witness sixty minutes of new writing performed book in hand.  

The Olympics Musical

In preparation for the Summer Olympics 2012, Mercury Musical Developments will be presenting a new musical with their sister organisation, The Academy of New Musical Theatre in Los Angeles. The musical score will consist of compositions by a variety of British and American writers.  

The Lionel Bart Memorial Master Class Series

Leading practitioners, including Maria Friedman, John Caird and Gareth Valentine offer a series of professional master classes to emerging writers in both the UK and US. The Lionel Bart Memorial Master Class Series is supported by The Lionel Bart Foundation. The series for 2010 will also include practitioners from Broadway. Sam Buntrock, Hal Prince, Tim Rice, Richard Stilgoe, Stephen Schwartz and David Babani are amongst the many luminaries who will be contributing to the ongoing series.  

The Resident Composer Scheme

Composer and lyricist Michael Bruce has recently been selected as the first resident composer by The Bush Theatre, London, under the Pilot Resident Composer Scheme. This initiative works in conjunction with MMD and aims to secure and develop placements for composers, lyricists and book writers within theatres and professional organisations throughout the UK. The scheme is supported by Arts Council England.   

ACE and The Really Useful Group have also recently supported MMD member David James in founding an ongoing Librettist Workshop for book-writers to develop their craft. www.bookmusicandlyrics.com 

MMD is a registered charity and would like to thank Arts Council England, The PRS For Music Foundation, The Noêl Coward Foundation, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, The Really Useful Group, Michael McCabe Ltd, The Garrick Trust, The Lionel Bart Foundation, Hilary Williams, Peter Fineman, Paul Elliott, Peter Wilson, The Garrick Foundation and Ray Jones for their ongoing support.

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