Bastille's Dan Smith to Co-Write Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller Musical for Curve Leicester
Bastille frontman Dan Smith will make his fully staged musical debut at Curve Leicester, co-writing the score to Misfits Together, a new musical about the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller.
The production runs in Curve's Studio Theatre from 4 September to 2 October 2027 — a world premiere nearly a year away. Curve's artistic director Nikolai Foster will direct.
Smith writes music and lyrics alongside Ralph Pelleymounter, frontman of the band To Kill a King and a co-writer of Rag'n'Bone Man's single Perfume. The book — the spoken script that frames the songs — is by Charlotte Bogard Macleod, a BBC Drama Award nominee and Jerwood Arvon Playwriting Award winner who founded the writers' development organisation The Script Factory.
The musical is set in 1950s America and follows Monroe and Miller as they navigate Hollywood pressures, political persecution and the demands of their respective careers. Monroe married the playwright in 1956; they remained together until 1961. The book explores her efforts to gain greater control over her career and public image, while Miller contends with McCarthyism — the anti-communist investigations led by Senator Joseph McCarthy — and the Hollywood blacklist that cost suspected leftists their livelihoods.
The score has already been recorded as a studio album, produced by Will Bloomfield. Sessions took place in 2025 at Bloomfield's Dairy Studios in Brixton, with further recording in Suffolk and at Abbey Road Studios. Smith's only previous musical project was a show about the Young Romantics; Misfits Together is his first to reach a full stage production.
The Monroe-Miller marriage has drawn other stage interest. A separate musical written, directed and produced by Tegan Summer, with Ruby Lewis as Monroe and Matthew Tyler as Miller, is also in development — though no production details or dates have been confirmed for that project (Arthur Miller Society).
What makes Misfits Together stand out is the pairing of a major-label pop songwriter with a regional producing house better known for large-scale revivals than new musical theatre. Curve, a Leicester-based theatre and a National Portfolio Organisation — meaning a company on Arts Council England's regular funding list — has built a reputation for ambitious in-house productions under Foster. Bringing a Bastille member into that pipeline gives the show a built-in audience that may not otherwise cross a studio theatre's threshold.
Casting for Misfits Together has not been announced. Ticket pricing and on-sale dates have not yet been published.
