Overview

• The previously unknown project, titled The Spectator, is set in 18th‑century London and reflects Bowie’s interest in art, satire and figures such as the thief “Honest” Jack Sheppard.
• Archivists found the musical’s plans in 2016 as pink and yellow sticky notes covering a wall in Bowie's New York office, a room to which only he and his assistant had keys.
• The notes and Bowie's desk will go on view at the V&A Storehouse in Hackney Wick when the David Bowie Centre opens to the public on September 13.
• The exhibition draws from an archive of more than 90,000 items, with hundreds selected for display, including 414 costumes and nearly 150 musical instruments along with notebooks and lyrics.
• Bowie died in 2016 at age 69, and the discovery underscores his long‑stated ambition to write for theatre.