BEAM was a DREAM (Musical Theatre Conference in UK)
- Beth Blatt
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
✈️ Just back from @BEAM 2025, the UK bi-annual musical theatre conference - and it was everything I hoped for and more. Birmingham Hippodrome was a dream venue.
I frequently attend the US equivalent, the yearly National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Festival. Both events are fantastically useful and inspiring.
👉 But they are also very different.
💡 I had FOUR major TAKEAWAYS about BEAM (vs NAMT):
1️⃣ More opportunities for meaningful connection.
There were coffee hours every morning, drinks every afternoon.
Everyone one was open and chatty, happy to share their direct contact info. Maybe because it's a smaller, newer universe, still, in the UK.
I came home with contact info for 30 incredible people to invite to our showcase concert of Oneida next week. (more on that below)
2️⃣ A wider range of "product."
BEAM offered 15-20 minute selections from 28 new musicals and shorter 12 Artist Spotlights. (NAMT shares 45 minute chunks of 8 shows - or close to that).
There was a lot of "quirky" on view. Birthing lambs ("Elbow Deep"). Flat Earthers. Crickets. The first gay disco in Hong Kong. Not everything was my taste - but it was all polished and passionate. They really thought about their audience.
3️⃣ Panels
I love panels! I sit there and insights and inspirations pouring in. Offers front-seat (literally) to learn more about possible partners - whether theatres, directors or producers. And again - a great path to establish connections with speakers afterwards.
4️⃣ Money was front-and-center.
Every musical presentation included a spoken pitch by the authors: where they were in their development process and what/who they were looking for now.
They didn't give a price tag. But the underlying message was unapologetic: this is a business and we need money/support to do this.
This feels different than various US events I've attended. More upfront. Less apologetic.
Why?
Maybe because it's so expensive to live in the UK? Maybe because the government support they had before has been cut in recent years?
It was refreshing, though. Not to be embarrassed to ask for what you need to make your work - and lives - sustainable.
Huge thanks to Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network for making it happen. Kate McKeown Martin Jackson.
TO MY AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE COLLEAGUES: consider work in the UK (some of you already are - Joan Ross Sorkin, Carmel Dean, Sharon Carr). There's a robust theatre-going audience, and production costs are lower. And the talent is now on a par - fantastic singing/acting.
To the amazing theatre folk at BEAM: thank you for sharing and connecting and making this happen - Curve Theatre Tim Sutton Felix Cross David James Kate Golledge Trevor Band Amos Wong Neil Bastian Thomas Dingle Tania Azevedo Mariko Kojima Martha Kent Faith Whenham Andrew Mills Annie Guo Katy Lipson.
Now! On to getting my showcase concert of Oneida ready for our May 29th date at Seven Dials Playhouse!
