In a revelation that has electrified fans and scholars alike, David Bowie’s secret final project—a musical set in the shadowy streets of 18th-century London—will soon be unveiled to the public for the first time. The late icon, who died in 2016 at age 69 after a battle with liver cancer, left behind not just his haunting farewell album Blackstar, but also a trove of handwritten notes and sticky memos outlining a stage production he called The Spectator. The existence of this musical, meticulously hidden away in his New York study and unknown even to his closest collaborators, is now set to take center stage at the new David Bowie Centre, opening September 13, 2025, at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s East Storehouse in Hackney Wick, London.
According to the BBC, the discovery of The Spectator came as a shock to Bowie’s inner circle. After his death, archivists cataloguing his belongings stumbled upon dozens of sticky notes pinned to the walls of a locked office—notes that would reveal the breadth of Bowie’s creative ambition in his final months. Alongside these notes was a notebook labeled “Spectator,” further detailing his vision for the musical. The project’s secrecy was so profound that not even Bowie’s longtime collaborators had any inkling of its existence until the materials surfaced posthumously.
The title The Spectator is itself a nod to history. Bowie drew inspiration from the real-life daily publication of the same name, which ran between 1711 and 1712 and chronicled the trends, scandals, and social undercurrents of London’s Enlightenment era. As reported by Postmedia, Bowie’s notes display a fascination with the period’s art, satire, and the role of artists as political commentators. Madeleine Haddon, the lead curator of the collection, explained to the BBC, “It seems he was asking, ‘What is the role of artists within this period? How are artists creating a kind of satirical commentary?’”
But Bowie’s interests went far beyond the intellectual. The sticky notes and notebook reveal a deep dive into the city’s criminal underbelly—a world of notorious thieves, violent gangs, and public spectacles. Among the characters he sketched out were Jack Sheppard, the infamous thief whose daring escapes from Newgate prison made him a folk hero, and Jonathan Wild, a vigilante who operated in the city’s shadowy corners. Bowie’s notes also recount surgeons fighting over corpses after public hangings, the turbulent Gordon Riots of 1780, and the exploits of the Mohock gang, whose violence terrorized London’s streets. He even jotted down an “analogy of greed versus monarchy,” hinting at broader social themes he wished to explore through the musical.
As The Standard observed, Bowie’s obsession with the evolution of art and satire during the 18th century was no accident. The era was a hotbed of satirical prints and comic illustrations, many of which lampooned the rich and powerful. The West End, in particular, was the heart of this thriving trade. Bowie’s notes reflect this cultural ferment, suggesting he saw a parallel between the artists of that time and his own role as a provocateur and commentator in modern music and art.
The unveiling of The Spectator at the David Bowie Centre is more than just the debut of an unfinished musical—it’s a window into Bowie’s creative process and lifelong ambitions. In a 2002 interview with BBC Radio 4, Bowie confessed, “Right at the very beginning, I really wanted to write for theatre.” He added, “And I guess I could have just written for theatre in my living room – but I think the intent was [always] to have a pretty big audience.” The discovery of The Spectator shows that, even as he faced his mortality, Bowie remained fixated on pushing artistic boundaries and fulfilling his earliest dreams.
The David Bowie Centre, housed within the V&A East Storehouse, will open its doors with a staggering collection of over 90,000 artifacts tracing Bowie’s five-decade career. Visitors will be able to see approximately 200 items on display at the opening, including the handwritten notes and sticky memos for The Spectator, as well as costumes, musical instruments, lyrics, diaries, and other unrealized projects. The exhibition is designed to chart Bowie’s evolution as a “musical innovator, cultural icon, and advocate for self-expression and reinvention,” as described by Mirror Celebs.
The Centre will also feature guest-curated displays. Notably, disco legend Nile Rodgers—who famously collaborated with Bowie on the Let’s Dance album—has selected a number of items for the collection, including a suit designed by opera costume designer Peter Hall and rare photographs and correspondence that trace their creative partnership. Indie rock band The Last Dinner Party will curate a section highlighting Bowie’s influence on later generations of musicians and artists, with a particular focus on the 1970s.
Madeleine Haddon, the Centre’s lead curator, emphasized the significance of Bowie’s multidisciplinary approach. “Bowie embodied a truly multidisciplinary practice—musician, actor, writer, performer, and cultural icon—reflecting the way many young creatives today move fluidly across disciplines and reject singular definitions of identity or artistry,” she told The Standard. Haddon added, “His fearless engagement with self-expression and performance has defined contemporary culture and resonates strongly with the values of authenticity, experimentation and freedom that we celebrate across the collections at V&A East Storehouse.”
For fans eager to explore more of Bowie’s final years, the exhibition’s opening will be preceded by the release of a new box set, I Can’t Give Everything Away (2022-2016), which documents and celebrates the artist’s last creative chapter. This comes on the heels of Lazarus, the off-Broadway musical Bowie co-wrote with Enda Walsh, which was itself a meditation on mortality and transformation, and further evidence of his enduring fascination with theater.
The David Bowie Centre is the result of a collaboration between the Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and Warner Music Group, ensuring that this extraordinary archive will be accessible to both longtime fans and newcomers. As Haddon put it, “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.”
Bowie’s secret project, once locked away and nearly forgotten, now stands as a testament to his restless imagination and his ceaseless drive to reinvent himself. For those who visit the Centre this fall, the world of The Spectator offers a final, tantalizing glimpse into the mind of one of music’s greatest visionaries.
