Winners announced for 2009 MTM:UK Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Musical Theatre Matters (MTM:UK) has announced this year’s award winners in a special gala event at Musical Theatre @ George Square which took place on Tuesday 25th August. The awards, sponsored by OD Musical (Korea) and Whatsonstage.com, were assessed by a team of judges and the results are as follows:

MOST PROMISING BOOK for a NEW MUSICAL

ED: THE MUSICAL – Stuart Price

MOST PROMISING LYRICS for a NEW MUSICAL

BARBERSHOPERA II – Rob Castell and Tom Sadler

MOST PROMISING MUSIC for a NEW MUSICAL

OVER THE THRESHOLD – Christopher Hamilton

MOST PROMISING NEW MUSICAL

ED: THE MUSICAL – Stuart Price (book), Michael Bruce (music/lyrics), Lauren Southwick (director) and Stopped Clock (producer)

BEST PRODUCTION of a MUSICAL

ACCIDENTAL NOSTALGIA – Cynthia Hopkins with Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg

JUDGES DISCRETIONARY AWARDS
All the following individuals receive awards.

• ARTHUR DARVILL, for the music in BEEN SO LONG
• MC DIZRAELI, for his performance in THE REBEL CELL
• PIPPA CLEARY, for the development of THE GREAT BRITISH SOAP OPERA

Commenting on the process, Awards Co-ordinator Fiona Orr said: "The Judging Panel have made awards that reflect the increasing talent shown in Edinburgh across the Musical Theatre genre.  The inaugural Judges’ Discretionary Awards are particularly interesting as it gives the panel the opportunity to recognise and reward talent beyond the main MTM Awards.”

The MTM:UK Awards were established in 2007 to champion the next generation of Musical Theatre producers, writers and shows.  Whilst Musical Theatre is not excluded from many other Edinburgh awards, the artform did not seem to be achieving the plaudits deserved by the creatives.  In addition we wanted to ensure that all new works received a review on-line which could help lead audiences, other critics, and talent spotters to this new work.  In the first two years we reviewed 132 mainly new works and 11 shows were selected for commendations and awards.

Many of those pieces, or the creatives involved have moved on – 6 of the 11 have had presentations in London, one has recently played the New York Summer Play Festival, three have had UK tours. With the help of the whole industry we can, we hope, raise the profile of the next generation of Musical Theatre so that audiences will grow familiar of new names, and welcome new projects.

Musical Theatre Matters (MTM:UK) is a not-for-profit organisation established in the UK by and for professional theatre creatives/producers wishing to develop and champion new musicals, new opportunities and new writers throughout the UK.

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