The Challenge
In 1991, to launch the Mercury Workshop - a new organisation for musical theatre writers formed from the core of writers who had studied with Stephen Sondheim at Oxford the previous year - twenty-eight writers came together to write The Challenge, a multi-collaborative musical about King Minos of Crete and the Minotaur, Daedalus and his son Icarus.
Each writing team was assigned a section of the story which suited their strengths as writers. Stephen Keeling and Shaun McKenna wrote the final two numbers, “Minos Is Here” and the finale of the show “If I Tell You”.
Stephen Sondheim provided several leitmotifs for the writers to use to unite the score musically.
The show had a triumphant premiere at the Shaw Theatre in London on July 19th, 1992 with a terrific cast. The Challenge was directed by Steven Dexter and produced by Kenny Wax and Sacha Brooks (for the Mercury Workshop). Stephen Clark wrote the book.
