Since its inception, it has produced more than fifty productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, premièred thirty new musical theatre works, toured several times outside the United Kingdom, and had runs in the West End and on Broadway.

Among the many alumni of the National Youth Music Theatre who have gone on to careers in the performing arts are actors Idris Elba and Jude Law, both of whom are also patrons of the organisation, along with Jonny Lee Miller, Sheridan Smith, Connie Fisher, and Matt Lucas.

[4] Young people who participate in the NYMT's productions and workshops do so as amateurs and meet their own expenses and fees, although the company provides bursaries in cases of need.

[5] The NYMT had its beginnings in 1976, when its founder Jeremy James Taylor, produced The Ballad of Salomon Pavey in a tent on the lawn of Belmont School in Mill Hill, North London.

[7] Appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe in other musicals performed entirely by school children followed in succeeding years with Helen Come Home, or Achilles the Heel (1978) and Tin Pan Ali, or The Sesame Street Racket (1979).

[9] October's Children by the same team of Nield, Whately and Taylor played on the International Festival in 1990 and in the following year at Sadler's Wells and the Swan Theatre, Stratford.

[10] By 2003, the company had presented 53 productions at the Edinburgh Fringe, premiered 29 new music theatre commissions, held eight foreign tours, and had runs in the West End and on Broadway.

[11] Over the years, the NYMT's main funding had come from private sponsorship, initially from the Nationwide Building Society and then from Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as grants from the Department for Education and Skills and Arts Council England.

In October 2005, with its debts cleared, the company announced a relaunch with a Royal Charity Gala, attended by the NYMT's president, the Earl of Wessex.

It also collaborated with the Ambassador Theatre Group to perform excerpts from three Disney musicals for children before an audience of teachers, youth leaders and directors.

The company marked its 35th anniversary at London's Vaudeville Theatre in April 2012 with a concert featuring some of NYMT's alumni who have gone on to professional acting careers, including Matt Lucas, Gina Beck, Amy Nuttall, Lara Pulver, Michael Jibson, and Ian Virgo.