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Andrew Lloyd Webber says his new Mona Lisa musical will be coming to London by next autumn
The Phantom of the Opera and Cats composer hopes that his new musical will be “fully open” by next September
Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed details about his new musical, centring on the theft of the Mona Lisa, and the composer says that he hopes the show will be “fully open” in London by next autumn, indicating that the musical could potentially hit the London stage in September 2027.
Speaking to the The Independent on their podcast, Lloyd Webber revealed that the project was inspired by the claim that “the Mona Lisa wasn’t famous until she was stolen” – before the theft, the painting hung in a poorly viewed location at the Louvre Museum in Paris and wasn’t highly regarded by critics. The museum did not even notice the artwork was missing for two days. It wasn’t until the painting was mistakenly stolen after the thief released he couldn’t carry a larger piece out under his coat that the media clamoured for the Mona Lisa’s return – and the painting became the internationally famous piece it is today.
Lloyd Webber told The Independent that the musical’s score will feature a mix of “Italian arias” and “Parisian harmonies,” and teased that the painting herself is quite a character.
He said: “Mona, I have to say, has quite a lot to say about life. She’s not a blushing flower when she’s out of that frame, because he had to take her out of the frame, so she comes out of the frame all right”.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer behind numerous West End and Broadway hits including Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. His longest-running West End show, The Phantom of the Opera, has just celebrated its 40th yearat His Majesty’s Theatre in the West End.
