The British Youth Music Theatre’s (BYMT) has confirmed the full line-up for its 20th anniversary gala event at London venue The Other Palace on 8 July 2024.
Hosted by BYMT alumnus and New Musical Theatre Award winner 2023, Lewis Cornay (SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical), the special event celebrating the last 20 years of the organisation will feature alumni professionals including the creators of the current West End hit, Babies, Martha Geelan and Jack Godfrey; Grace Mouat (Mean Girls), Kayleigh McKnight (Six), Ryan Heenan (Back to the Future), Courtney Stapleton (Beauty and the Beast), Jordan Paul Clarke (Angry Salmon), Bethany Tennick (Islander), Rebecca Levy (Mamma Mia! The Party), the creative director/choreographer of current BYMT show Wonderland in Alice, Christopher Tendai (Closer to Heaven), Maddie Matthews, David Leo and recent graduates Maya Khatri Chhetri and Honor Brigg.
They will be joined by the next generation of future musical theatre stars – members of the BYMT’s current Young Company. The gala will take place on the set of Babies, the musical which began its life as a BYMT show in 2021 and has now been developed into a fully-fledged professional new musical.
The new and future stars will perform highlights from some of the 120 musicals developed and presented by BYMT in the past. It will also celebrate the current talent, looking to transform musical theatre and start the careers of the next generation of professionals.
The 20th anniversary celebration will also include A BYMT Convention: Careers in New Music Theatre taking place at The Other Palace Studio during the day on 8 July. An event for young people aged 11-21, the BYMT Convention features sessions curated by BYMT’s Young Company Panel, including discussions on creating your own show, building a career in theatre and an open mic slot for original musical material by current BYMT participants.
Composers, casting directors, producers, agents and directors from companies including Musical Theatre Network and Birmingham Hippodrome New Musicals Department will share their experience with the next generations of theatre-makers.
Commenting on the work of the BYMT, patron Zoe Wanamaker said: “As a patron of British Youth Music Theatre I’m proud to wish this wonderful arts charity a happy 20th anniversary. BYMT gives opportunities to young people of all different backgrounds to explore their creativity and be part of developing and performing brand new musical theatre. BYMT trains the theatre-makers of the future who will go on to work on stage and screen.”
Over the past 20 years, BYMT has created 120 new musicals and ignited the careers of highly successful performers and theatre makers, including singer songwriters Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, director Luke Sheppard (& Juliet, The Little Big Things, Starlight Express), performers Grace Mouat (Six, & Juliet), Bradley Jaden (Les Misérables, Wicked), Genesis Lynea (Six, Silent Witness), Kayleigh McKnight (Six), Luke Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and Charlotte Richie (Ghosts, Fresh Meat).
Alongside the gala performance, BYMT’s 20th season will include the staging of seven new British musicals and the development of a further seven musicals.
Featuring young people from across the UK, the full and public productions for 2024 will be presented at Birmingham Hippodrome, Southwark Playhouse, Lyric Belfast, Octagon Bolton, Northcott Exeter and the New Wolsey, Ipswich. The high-powered creatives contributing to the season will include Dean Johnson, Tom Ling, Amir Shoenfeld, Francesca Goodridge, Ruth Chan and Ellie Jones.
The season which launched during the Easter break with a re-telling of George Orwell’s Animal Farm by composer Josh Kemp, writer Ellie Jones and lyricist Tom Ling; includes the third instalment in the Tony Macaulay Paperboy/Breadboy trilogy All Growed Up by composer Shauna Carrick and book-writer Dean Johnson; Matthew Harvey’s Unbound; Wonderland in Alice by composer Meg McGrady with spoken word written by Acken Taylor; The Power of Camelot by composer Ruth Chan and writer Cerys Jones; the New Music Theatre Award-winning surreal tale of a seaside town submerged in sand, Welcome to Serene by Bethany Tennick and Iona Ramsay; and When We Strike, a punk rock telling of the matchstick girls’ strike in 1880s London, composed by Amir Shoenfeld and written by Caitlyn Burt.
British Youth Music Theatre (BYMT) offers exceptional opportunities in pre-professional, musical theatre training for talented young people of all backgrounds aged 10 to 23 years through skills workshops, master classes and residential courses led by industry professionals, through commissioning and presentation of exciting new work – in collaboration with some of the UK’s leading creative minds. Opportunities exist for stage performers, musicians, technicians and stage crew and, though the Creative Team Mentorship programme, for aspiring directors, musical directors, choreographers and designers.
Angela Thomas
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