Musical Today Lloyd Webber's Mona Lisa musical will be fully open in London by next autumn
Andrew Lloyd Webber's next musical has a subject, a city and a season. Speaking on The Independent's podcast, reported by WhatsOnStage on 23 October, he said the show about the theft of the Mona Lisa will be fully open in London by next autumn, which means around September 2027.
The story
In August 1911 a Louvre workman, Vincenzo Peruggia, walked out with the painting under his coat and kept it in a Paris flat for two years before trying to sell it in Florence. The theft made the picture famous; Lloyd Webber's show is about the theft.
The sound
He describes the score as Italian arias and Parisian harmonies, which places it nearer Phantom and Aspects of Love than Cats or School of Rock.
What is not announced
The theatre, the creative team beyond the composer, the cast and the dates. Fully open by autumn implies previews in the summer; the house is likely one of LW Theatres' own, since he owns six of them, but nothing has been said.
The context
His last new musical to open in London was Cinderella in 2021. Phantom of the Opera continues at His Majesty's, booking into 2027, and the composer's name on a new West End title still sells the first months on its own.
The sentence to hold him to is fully open, which is the composer's way of saying the show is written and the date is not the problem. Lloyd Webber announces titles years before they arrive, and some never do; a season named on a podcast is a stronger signal than a press release, because he does not say it unless the theatre is pencilled. Watch LW Theatres' own houses for a gap in the second half of 2027: the Palladium is a concert house, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane has Frozen's successor, and the one that empties is the one this goes into.
Source: WhatsOnStage checked against the source
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