School of Music alumna wins prestigious musical theatre award

School of Music graduate, Rachel Walker Mason, has won the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize 2023, at an event held at The Other Palace in London.

Rachel was awarded the prize for her song “Drown Without Water”, taken from her new musical “The Circle”. The song also features on the Grammy award-winning album, “Six”.

The prize was awarded by musical theatre greats George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, writers of Honk, Soho Cinders, Mary Poppins.

The song was co-written with Nina Sundstrom, and the script for the musical was written by director and writer Eloise Hodder, winner of many theatre awards.

In the song, the character is talking about her experience with postnatal depression, based on Rachel’s own experience after giving birth.

Rachel said: “I am absolutely stunned to have won! This is the first musical I have written so to even be nominated is incredible, but when Stiles and Drewe announced the winning song, I was in total shock.

“The award means so much to me and the entire creative team for The Circle as it is such a well-respected and established award within the musical theatre community, it gives us a lot of confidence going forward with the musical.

“Writing a song about postnatal depression was daunting as we needed to get the lyrics just right to convey all the character had been through. I have also suffered with postnatal depression after the births of my children so used my personal experience to create the story for the character. The judges said it was the authenticity of the lyrics that captivated them and pulled them into the story.

“The judges described the song as “emotionally magnificent” which is something I will never forget. As a songwriter I strive to move people with my songs, so to have one of them described in such a way felt like I’d done something special.”

Since 2008, Stiles and Drewe have recognised new musical theatre writing through their annual prize for ‘Best New Song’. The award is available for members of Mercury Musical Developments (MMD), of which George and Anthony are founding board members.

‘Best New Song’ recognises an outstanding song from a new musical written by a member of MMD, offered in conjunction with the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award.