When David Bowie passed away in 2016, his farewell gift was his final album Blackstar, shaped by his cancer diagnosis and acceptance of mortality.
However, it has now been revealed that in his final months he also began working on another project, which he described in his notes as an “18th-century musical,” according to the BBC.
The existence of the musical Spectator wasn’t known even to his closest collaborators until the notes were discovered in his study in 2016. They have now been donated to the V&A Museum, along with the rest of his archive.
Shared exclusively with the BBC, the musical reveals Bowie’s fascination with the rise of art and satire in 18th-century London, featuring stories about criminal gangs and the infamous thief Jack Sheppard.
Had it been completed, the musical would have fulfilled one of Bowie’s lifelong ambitions.
“From the very beginning, I really wanted to write for the theater. I suppose I could have just written plays in my living room, but I think the intention was always to have quite a large audience,” Bowie said in a 2002 interview with BBC Radio 4.
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