BEAM Archive

The inaugural BEAM showcase at Park Theatre, London in 2016 was described by a leading artistic director as “game-changing” and was followed in 2018 by a two-day showcase at Theatre Royal, Stratford East showcasing fifty-eight contemporary British musical theatre pieces and their writers.

BEAM returned in 2021 in a hybrid live in-person and live-streamed, and pre-recorded digital one day format at Hackney Empire and online via stream.theatre in September 2021, following the postponement of BEAM2020 at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

There were pitches from 37 new musicals in development, some pre-filmed, with ideas ranging from daytime bhangra raves to climate change told as a love story, from challenging the UK’s hostile environment policy to singing lesbian pirates, as well as panel discussions and networking.  

In 2019, MMD and MTN travelled across the UK to hear pitches from more than 300 new musicals and curated a showcase of fabulously diverse shows in a variety of stages of developments, so they could be presented to potential development partners, producers and audiences.  

For the first time, BEAM was showcased online via live-stream and on-demand options in response to the covid pandemic,, allowing even more people across the UK, and internationally, to experience up and coming new British musicals. Find out more about each BEAM showcase below.