David Bowie was working on a secret musical before his death
David Bowie was working on a musical about 18th-century London before his death, it’s now been revealed.
The project is believed to have been started at his home in New York in the months leading up to his death in January 2016, while he was privately battling cancer.
According to a new report from the BBC, the musical was called The Spectator, and the existence of the project was unknown to those who knew him best until his notes were found in his study after he passed away.
The notes reportedly show Bowie’s interest in the growth of art and satire in London during the 18th century in London, as well as tales of criminal gangs in the city during the same period. His notes were discovered as he had left them in his office, which was always locked and only he and his personal assistant could access the private room.
The Spectator was a daily London publication that ran between 1711 and 1712, which focused on the capital, and Bowie had an entire notebook devoted to his thoughts on stories they ran. He’d even score their essays out of ten.
Madeleine Haddon, curator at V&A East, speculated to the BBC of Bowie’s plans for the project, “It seems he was thinking, ‘What is the role of artists within this period? How are artists creating a kind of satirical commentary?”
She also contextualised this work within the political climate it was created, adding, “It’s interesting to think that Bowie was working on this in the US in 2015, with the political situation that was taking place there. Was he thinking about that: The power of art forms to create change within our own political moment.”
Bowie’s plans for The Spectator are set to be available to view for the general public once The David Bowie Centre opens at the V&A on September 13th, along with the rest of the late music icon’s personal archive which boasts over 90,000 items.
Upon the announcement of The David Bowie Centre, Haddon said in July: “This archive offers an extraordinary lens through which to examine broader questions of creativity, cultural change, and the social and historical moments during which Bowie lived and worked. In the Centre, we want you to get closer to Bowie, and his creative process than ever before. For Bowie fans and those coming to him for the first time, we hope the Centre can inspire the next generation of creatives.”
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