Andrew Lloyd Webber Reteaming with Sunset Boulevard Collaborators Don Black & Christopher Hampton for New Musical

Andrew Lloyd Webber has recruited his former Sunset Boulevard book writers and lyricists Don Black and Christopher Hampton for his next musical, according to The Globe and Mail. As previously announced, the musical will explore the infamous Profumo Affair and the collapse of Britain’s Conservative Macmillan government in 1963.

John Profumo was the Secretary of State for war under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. He had an affair with a call girl named Christine Keeler, who was involved with an official at the Soviet Embassy at the same time. Lloyd Webber’s musical will reportedly focus on Stephen Ward, an osteopath who introduced Profumo to Keeler. Ward was accused and tried for pimping out women in the scandal, and though the charges were ultimately dropped, he killed himself soon after the trial.

Black and Hampton earned Tony Awards for the book and lyrics of Sunset Boulevard. Black wrote lyrics for Bonnie & Clyde, Bombay Dreams, Aspects of Love and Merlin. Hampton's plays include The Philanthropist and Les Liasons Dangereuses and he has translated shows for Broadway including God of Carnage and Art.