West End stars perform free online concert to celebrate the Stiles & Drewe Prize nominees
Over the past week, we’ve continued to receive unfortunate news about UK theatre. But today, we got a reminder that there’s still hope.
The Stiles and Drewe award celebrates the development of new musicals but since it’s gala was recently cancelled, it’s instead moving online with a free concert evening. With what looks like a challenging time ahead, it hopes to showcase up-and-coming writers.
George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have composed for shows such as Mary Poppins, Half A Sixpence, and Soho Cinders. Their musical, Honk!, even won the Olivier for Best Musical. Since 2008 they have also hosted the Stiles and Drewe prize for best song from a new musical.
This year 167 entries were submitted, and only 15 have made it to the final. The winner of the prize will receive £1000 to help progress their careers. Each nominated song will be performed by a West End actor with the winner being revealed at the end of the night.
Stiles and Drewe themselves will take a place at the judges table with Toby Marlow, Lucy Moss, Dan Gillespie-Sells, and Cassie Kinoshi joining them. Musical direction will be provided by Steve Ridley, with mix engineering by Kevin Porée, and video production by Bartek Podkowa.
The concert will air on Sunday 5 July through the Stiles & Drewe channel on YouTube. To help subsidize membership to Mercury Musical Developments which supports the work of musical theatre writers, the stream will also be raising money for the Keep Writing Fund.
The final songs are:
‘Bottle it’ by Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage- Tanya: A New Musical (performed by Lizzie Bea, Hairspray)
‘Broken Guitar’ by Meg McGrady and Zoe Morris- The Phase (performed by Alex Thomas-Smith, Dear Evan Hansen)
‘Colour’ by Charli Eglinton- Colours (Performed by Fra Fee, The Ferryman)
‘Heaven Can Wait’ by Julian Woolford and Richard John- The Devil’s Advocate (performed by Maiya Quansah-Breed, Six)
‘Home’ by Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage- Windows In The West (performed by Louise Dearman, Wicked)
‘I’m Your Guy’ by Amir Shoenfeld and Matthew Greene- Benny In Beta (performed by Tyrone Huntley, Jesus Christ Superstar)
‘Juliet Kind of Love’ by Victoria Saxton and Charles Miller- Marriage A La Mode (performed by Zizi Strallen, Mary Poppins)
‘Minnesota’ by Julian Woolford and Richard John- Comrade Rockstar (performed by Luke Bayer, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie)
‘My First Ex-Boyfriend’ by Richard Marsh, Miranda Cooper, and Nick Coler- Son of Rambow (performed by Natalie Paris, Six)
‘Ride’ by Freya Smith and Jack Williams- Ride (performed by Laura Pitt-Pulford, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers)
‘Shape the Future’ by Thomas Sutcliffe- Borders (performed by Melanie La Barrie, & Juliet)
‘Sparks’ by Freya Smith and Jack Williams- The Limit (performed by Lauren Samuels, Bend It Like Beckham)
‘The Something Else’ by Vikki Stone- #zoologicalsociety (performed by Allyson Ava-Brown, Hamilton)
‘Two Ways to Australia’ by Rachel Bellman and Elizabeth Sybil Charlesworth- The Dickens Girls (performed by Rebecca Trehearn, Showboat)
‘You Got a Problem’ by Rob Green and Nic Harvey- Hoarding: A Musical (performed by Marisha Wallace, Dreamgirls)
To watch the concert next Sunday, please click here.
Good luck to all involved!
