Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City University/Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust and West Midlands Combined Authority will partner to create a business case for a world-leading facility for musical theatre in the UK. The partners will work with local, regional and national stakeholders to develop a first-class proposition.

The belief is that Birmingham, as one of the youngest and most diverse cities in Europe, can build an international creative ecology around the art form. This will stimulate economic growth, provide new employment opportunities for young people from all backgrounds and help cement the UK’s position as a leader in a thriving international musical theatre market.

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: “The UK has a strong reputation for creating and producing musicals that delight audiences across the country and around the globe. Birmingham’s plans for a new National Centre for Musical Theatre will help drive the growth of this important art form nationally and internationally, as well as offering the opportunity to nurture the next generation of creative talent in the West Midlands.”

A National Centre for Musical Theatre would grow skills and training to help to fill the national industry skills gap whilst creating opportunities for young people from the region. It would further enhance the West Midlands as an exciting location to live and work as an artist and create a new cultural destination for the region. With Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network both located in Birmingham, the partnership has a strong network of regional expertise to draw on.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair said: “Musical innovation is in the DNA of the West Midlands. From pioneering heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath to the multi-cultural Two Tone movement, our impact on music has been global. Even our greatest TV export, Peaky Blinders, is now a stage musical so I can’t think of a better place to have a National Centre for Musical Theatre.

“We need to unleash and nurture the enormous talent we have in the West Midlands by providing the training opportunities local people need to land jobs in our growing creative sector. Having a musical theatre centre located here will help support that ambition.”

The partners include Birmingham Hippodrome and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Birmingham Hippodrome has recently set up the UK’s first venue-based department for New Musical Theatre, committed to creating opportunities for musical theatre talent from the across the UK. The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Acting School is one of the UK’s highest ranked courses, and this collaboration will see them look to create a dedicated musical theatre course.

Jon Gilchrist, Artistic Director & Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham Hippodrome said: “Our audience loves musical theatre, and of the 600,000 tickets we sell every year, more than half for musicals. This partnership will work to harness the incredible creative talent of the West Midlands to make a genuine destination for the art form. We hope that one day soon our stages will be filled with the work of artistic talent developed here in Birmingham.”