[1] Founded in 1992[2][3] as the Mercury Workshop, it took on its present name when it merged in 1999 with the New Musicals Alliance.

Its Executive Director is Emily Gray, who succeeded Victoria Saxton, who succeeded Neil Marcus, previously Artistic Director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, in 2015.

[4] A registered charity,[5] it receives funding from Arts Council England.

[6] MMD also work in consortium with Musical Theatre Network (MTN), a membership organisation who works to bring people and resources together to improve infrastructure and opportunities for new musical theatre in the UK, strengthen and diversify the new musical sector and the art form, and is a national network of venues, producers, directors, colleges and universities, organisations and individuals.

In 1990 composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim took the Cameron Mackintosh chair in musical theatre at the University of Oxford, and in this capacity ran workshops with promising writers of musicals, including George Stiles, Anthony Drewe, Andrew Peggie, Paul James, and Stephen Keeling.