In 1990 Stephen Sondheim became the first visiting professor in Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University.

Over six months he worked with thirteen of Britain's young composers, lyricists and bookwriters.

It was the first time that such a group had come together in this country and the results were very exciting; at last writers of musical theatre had a forum, led with great care and authority by Stephen Sondheim himself, in which to explore and develop their skills and experiences.

With the end of Stephen Sondheim's tenure, the group was inevitably broken up but strong contacts had been made.

Eighteen months later, having tracked down his fellow Oxford participants and several other of Britain's best musical writers, Edward Hardy invited everyone to meet.

It was felt that there was much to be gained from the writers continuing to discuss and support each other's work. At the same time, Kenneth Wax had been preparing to present a revue of songs from six or so of these writers.

The two ideas came together over an informal weekend in April 1992 at Charles Hart's Mercury Theatre. Sondheim, twenty eight writers, two producers and a director decided to form a lasting association to encourage and develop the musicals that the members of the group were writing.

It was also decided that to launch this organisation they would write and produce a multi-collaborative musical involving everyone in the group.

The aim was primarily to create a splash, but the group was also determined that the piece would form an exciting showcase for the wide variety of people's work and, above all, be an accessible and highly entertaining show.

On top of all the obvious problems of so many people writing a coherent piece of theatre, the group then set itself a ridiculous deadline - fifteen weeks to write, orchestrate, rewrite, cast, design, rehearse and perform as professional a show as possible.

All that remained was to raise an impossibly tight budget - from the writers' own pockets and co-producer Kenneth Wax.

Stephen Clark proposed the story of Daedalus (which weaves together several famous Greek Myths as well as some less well known escapades) and then divided the story into eighteen sections, trying to ensure that each section had enough dramatic potential within it to service the writers.

By good chance, each writer or writing team was allocated one of their preferred sections and the main creative team - initially Steven Dexter (director), Stephen Clark (bookwriter) and Kenneth Wax and Sacha Brooks (producers) - grew quickly to the full production complement.

The writers then had five weeks to come up with their first drafts and be ready to sing them in front of their peers. On 17th May, nine weeks before performance, this first tentative sing through took place.

The experience was marginally more exciting than it was frightening - an audience of writers is a writer's nightmare.

However by the end of the day it became clear that the idea was becoming a show, with a story, with a story and characters and tunes.

After many phone calls a flurry of second drafts and then Clark and Dexter knitted all the sections together - a careful balance of imagination and diplomacy.

This was only possible thanks to a total absence of preciousness or possessiveness from all the writers.

By the time the second drafts (or most of them!) were in place there was a near complete cast of top rate artists ready to sing them.

For the next five weeks Dexter and choreographer Nadia Strahan rehearsed flat out while the final rewrites were faxed to the rehearsal rooms. They were supported by the three musical directors who were not only playing for every rehearsal but orchestrating the pieces as they came in.

Such was the dynamism or foolhardiness of the whole group that despite the deadlines, minimal budget and ludicrous timescale, everyone seemed hell-bent on doing it properly.

Hence, for one night only, The Challenge was performed by highly experienced performers, with a full lighting plot, the full sound rig from a West End spectacular, with three of the West End's best musical directors and so on - every department vying to match the creativity of the writers who had initiated the project.

The production had less than two days to set up in the theatre, where most musicals might have two weeks. The "one-off" performance on 19th July at the Shaw Theatre, London was a complete sell out two weeks before it took place. In the weeks to come, the press would say the following things about the performance.

"Handsomely performed and rapturously received... In every way it already surpasses dozens of musicals professionally presented in recent years on either side of the Atlantic..."
Financial Times

"A professionalism and a verve matching anything in the West End... everyone involved should be feeling ebullient.."
The Independent

"This overstuffed sausage of an evening... an astonishingly energetic display... intending producers should proceed..."
The Times

Click play to listen to SUMMON UP A STORM, and BULL INSIDE MY CHINA SHOP.