Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Next Musical Will Be The Illusionist, Directed by Jamie Lloyd

Andrew Lloyd Webber's next musical project will be The Illusionist, directed by Jamie Lloyd, whose production of Sunset Boulevard opened in New York this month. Lloyd Webber made the reveal in an exclusive to Deadline.

The book is by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Chris Terrio (Argo). British songwriter Bruno Major is also attached, though Deadline did not specify how.

The show is only partly inspired by the 2006 movie of the same name that starred Edward Norton and was written and directed by Neil Burger, itself based on a story from The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser. “We are not hugely based on the movie,” said Lloyd Webber. “What we’ve done is taken the idea of it and developed it into another area completely.”

According to the Deadline report, Lloyd Webber performed an early draft of his score to Lloyd earlier this year as they began preparing to open Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. Lloyd was approached to direct the musical more recently.

Lloyd Webber praised Lloyd as a collaborator (“As an oldie now, to have somebody’s who’s younger, just challenges me”) and said that audiences should look forward to spectacular illusions (“They’re a very important part of the show”).

He added, “It’s absolutely fair to say we haven’t a clue where it’s going to open, because an awful lot of it’s got to do with what theaters are available on which side of the pond. I mean, it could be New York, it could be here [in London]. I’d like it to be here, but it could be New York. It’s also important to emphasize that it’s very, very early days.”

Deadline heard three songs from what Lloyd Webber described as an “operatic” score: “a powerful ballad,” “a sweeping love song with a haunting melody” evocative of Lloyd Webber’s classic era and a “passionate love song.”