BOOK Music & Lyrics

16/04/2025

🎶Congratulations to all of our Advanced Group writers who showcased their work this afternoon 🎶 Special thanks to Mark Warman for devising and directing and to our performers: Steven Warner, Maria Coyne, Shaylyn Gibson, Jack Reitman and Nigel Richard’s and to our supporters and funders for making this presentation of the extraordinary efforts of our writers possible.

07/02/2025

This week marked our final week at the YMCA 😭 on Gt Russell Street. A moment we felt we needed to capture 📸. Just look at all those lovely faces!!! The building closes its doors today. A vital community space used by 1000s of people. It has been our home for the past 7 years. For now, we move to online 💻( )

With the closure of our venue and rising expenses, we’re facing a critical moment. To continue supporting the next generation of musical theatre creators, we need to raise funds to secure a new home and keep our program running.

🔗LINK IN BIO

Here’s how you can help:
🎶 Donate whatever you can to support BML.
🎭 Share our donation link with your network.
✨ Spread the word on social media.

Thank you for being part of our story. 💛

29/01/2025

And another big thank you to for covering our story and for making that happen. 🔗LINKS IN BIO

Previous BML participants Jim Barne and Kit Bucham (Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)), recipients of the 2020 Stage Debut Awards for Best Composer/ Lyricist, said:
“BOOK Music & Lyrics is the first thing we recommend to anybody with an interest in writing a musical. Apart from the trove of knowledge on offer, it also fosters collaboration and (most importantly) community in the student body. It gave us the opportunity to take ourselves seriously as musical theatre writers, and provided us with techniques that we still think about on a daily basis.”
  
Here’s how you can help:
🎶 Donate whatever you can to support BML.
🎭 Share our donation link with your network.
✨ Spread the word on social media.

Thank you for being part of our story. 💛

28/01/2025

Thank you to for helping us spread the word. Also special shout out to for making that happen. 🔗LINKS IN BIO

Past workshop member Darren Clark (The Wicker Husband, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), winner of the Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award, said: “It’s safe to say that my career would not be what it is today without the incredible tutelage and mentorship that I received through my time on the BML course. Having a musical in the West End has long been a dream of mine and I can almost guarantee that it would never have happened without the skills, craft, support and community I gained from the BML course.”  

Here’s how you can help:
🎶 Donate whatever you can to support BML.
🎭 Share our donation link with your network.
✨ Spread the word on social media to help us reach more people who love and believe in the magic of musical theatre.

Thank you for being part of our story. 💛

27/01/2025

Donation link in bio・・・
BOOK Music & Lyrics, the UK’s only professional development programme for musical theatre composers, lyricists and librettists, is at risk of closure after 15 years and is appealing to musical theatre fans and funders across the UK to help secure its future.

An increasingly difficult fundraising climate paired with the sudden closure of their venue, the Central YMCA club, in December 2024 has left the future of the organisation uncertain. A core ethos of BML is to ensure that its courses are accessible to writers across the UK. Course fees cover less than 50% of its running costs, and it relies on fundraising to cover the remainder. BML also offers up to 10 bursaries a year.

Established in 2010, BML has been proud to serve as a vital space for nurturing the next generation of musical theatre creators through weekly collaborative workshops for librettists, composers and lyricists. Led by established professionals, BML workshops provide a practical, structured environment to learn from tradition while advancing the form, offering essential peer support and encouragement.

2024, saw two musicals hit the West End with writers who attended the BOOK Music & Lyrics workshops. As well as being named ‘Best Musical Theatre Development Programme 2024’ by SME News, BML writers were chosen for the first three years of Stiles & Drewe Mentorship Awards between 2016 and 2018, and they regularly feature as finalists or runners up for the Stiles and Drewe Best Song Prize. BML alumna Eden Treadwell won the prize in 2021.

13/05/2024

BOOK, MUSIC & LYRICS
September 2024 to July 2025

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN
Book, Music & Lyrics is the UK’s only professional development programme for mu-sical theatre writers. We run weekly sessions for writers, run by industry profession-als. All sessions are in-person (at the YMCA, Great Russell Street, WC1) and streamed through zoom.
Our workshops run for 34 sessions per year, from September to July, excluding public holiday weeks/ half-terms/Edinburgh Fringe.
If you’re a composer, lyricist or playwright pursuing a career in musical theatre writ-ing, take a look at our website. We’d love you to join us!
www.bookmusicandlyrics.com
APPLYING

Applications for September 2024 will open from April 19th to May 17th 2024. Appli-cants will be invited to submit examples of work, and to attend an audition interview. Interviews will be held on June 22nd and 23rd 2024 in central London.
WORKSHOPS
COMPOSER/LYRICIST WORKSHOP
The Composer/Lyricist workshop meets for on Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm - 8.30pm. The First-Year group begins on Wednesday 18th September 2024.
The workshop accepts up to 24 members. You may apply as a Composer, a Lyri-cist, or a Composer/Lyricist. Composer/Lyricists are encouraged to practice only the field in which they are stronger.

All applicants will meet the facilitators for an audition during the weekend of 22nd/23rd June in person (or on Zoom if necessary).
All members need to be attend to regularly, in the room if possible offered a place, and to not to let down their collaborators.
LIBRETTIST (BOOK WRITER) WORKSHOP
The Librettist workshop meets Tuesday evenings from 6pm - 8pm. The group be-gins on Tuesday 17th September 2024. Each applicant will meet for a chat with the facilitator during the summer. We urge playwrights who are interesting in exploring writing musicals to apply.

FEES
For a year's membership of BML, the early-bird fee is £525. This amount is payable in full by Friday 15th September 2024.
A payment plan is also available to members who cannot pay in one installment. The Membership fee can be paid over 10 monthly instalments (September-June) by Direct Debit of £60 per month. Instalments should begin at the beginning of Sep-tember and be regularly paid.
Those in proven financial need may apply to the BML Board of Directors for a bur-sary. The process to apply for a bursary is stringent, and bursaries are allocated at the discretion of the Board of Directors when BML's financial situation allows. For more information on the bursary process, email [email protected]. A successful bursary candidate will be expected to commit to the entire year’s pro-gramme and to contribute to the administration and running of the BML office by ar-rangement.
We aim to accommodate access needs, and subject to funding we are sometimes able to offer travel and access bursaries. Please speak to us if an access barrier might prevent you from being able to attend.

BOOK Music & Lyrics: The UK's only weekly workshop for the professional development of musical theatre practitioners. BML: Nurturing the development of new musical theatre.