The creation, gestation, birth and production cost of a new musical is an order of magnitude more difficult than the similar process for a piece of drama, and in the UK (unlike in the USA) there is no 'greenhouse' to nurture the creators of musical theatre.

This is not to say that the creation of a play is easy, for it too has its difficulties, but the large musical, with its crucial inter-dependence between book and score, its larger team of interpreters (director, musical director, choreographer etc), often larger cast size and its generally larger production scale, conspire to throw up problems not usually faced by the producer of a straight play.

We strongly believe in the need to develop and support the talents of British writers and composers and consequently we have a strategy of representing 'homegrown' creative people wherever possible. So far we've contracted these entirely British (mostly full length) musicals ...

(** means writer/composer is a member of Mercury Musical Development)

General Audiences

• Act Your Age (by Christopher Wortley)
• Billy Buckett (by Jay Turner, Cath Mundy & Peter Cann)
• Bugle Boy (by Den Stevenson)
• Emerald (by Chris Burgess** & Denise Wright**)
• Feelgood Academy (by Steve Jones, Penny Lane & Glenn Keiles)
• Gulliver's Travels (by Chris Chambers** & Andy Rapps)
• Gunpowder Treason & Plot (by Chris Chambers)
• Hooked (by Max Kinnings, Matthew James and Nick Hale)
• King David (by John Fletcher & David Chapman)
• Quasimodo(by Steve Humfress & Andy Rapps)
• Reality (by Stephen Bridges & Noel Bannister)
• Rock Apocalypse (by Simon Haynes & Adrian Cross)
• The Best Man (by Ian Cook & Ian Newton)
• The Girl Who Saved Christmas (by Paul Alexander, Penny Lane & Glenn Keiles)
• The Reunion (by Ian Cook & Ian Newton)
• Threads (by John Fletcher & David Chapman)
• Whisky Galore (adapted from Compton McKenzie's novel by Shona McKee McNeil and Ian Hammond Brown)
• Whisky Kisses (by Euan Martin, Dave Smith & James Bryce)
• Witchfinder (by Martin Roche & Ian Crabtree)

Youth Theatre

• 1605 And All That (Andrew Merryweather & Nick Paterson)
• Arabian Nights(by Adam Forde & David Perkins**)
• The Fang Gang(Roy Apps & Christopher Wortley)
• The Razzle Dazzle Man (Tony Layton, Roger Hart & John Bilsborough)
• The Wind In The Willows (a new adaptation by Adam Forde & David Perkins**)