29 new musicals to be showcased in BEAM 2023 line-up

BEAM 2023, a two-day event this May dedicated to new musical theatre, is to showcase 29 musicals-in-development.

Running across May 25 and 26 at the Oxford Playhouse, BEAM will showcase new musicals and host workshops and panel discussions on musical theatre.

Musical Theatre Network, Mercury Musical Developments and Oxford Playhouse are producing the event.

Musical Theatre Network has also welcomed two new board members to the company.

Rifco Theatre Company artistic director and chief executive Pravesh Kumar and producer Ameena Hamid will join the organisation’s board. They will succeed Peter Rowe and Suzann McLean who have both stepped down as board members. 

Shows to be featured at BEAM 2023 include Song of the Far Isles, an actor-musician musical by Matt Borgatti; Ratburger a musical adaptation of the David Walliams book of the same title by Robert White; Once Upon a Carnival by Leian John-Baptiste, Perry Melius and Triniboi Joocie; and Scholl by Ella Grace.

Mercury Musical Developments executive director Natalia Scorer said: "BEAM is a vital platform for exciting new shows to be discovered. These 29 new musicals have been chosen from 265 pitches from around the UK and we are really looking forward to sharing this content and talent with the wider industry. 

"BEAM is an excellent chance to bring the industry together to have important conversations about opportunities and pathways to developing new work, and to spark ideas and collaborations."  

Musical Theatre Network executive director James Hadley said: "BEAM was developed to meet the industry’s need for a more efficient way of talent-spotting and gaining an overview of the most promising musical-theatre writers and projects in development. 

"The new musical-theatre landscape is like an iceberg – most musicals take at least five years to develop, so the vast majority are below the surface for years. As a result, we found many in the industry are only aware of a small percentage of the talented writers seeking to bring their musicals up to the surface, and BEAM is our way of changing that." 

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