A new stage musical titled Misfits Together is set to debut next autumn at Leicester’s Curve, offering an intimate and nuanced portrait of the marriage between Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller. The production, which is scheduled to run from 4-25 September 2027, draws its title from the 1961 film that Miller wrote for Monroe, which was released shortly after their divorce.
The project marks a foray into musical theatre for indie musicians Dan Smith of the band Bastille and Ralph Pelleymounter of To Kill a King. The pair have already recorded the score as a studio album, with the first track, Oh America, slated for release this Thursday. The songwriters collaborated on the project’s book with Charlotte Bogard Macleod, who noted that the musical explores Miller's integrity, particularly his refusal to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee despite the significant personal cost. Macleod emphasized that the show highlights how Monroe was central to supporting Miller, noting that she was a trailblazer who operated her own production company.
Set against the backdrop of the 1950s “red scare,” the musical draws parallels between that era and the present day. Pelleymounter noted that the phrase “history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes” guided their work, as they sought to address how othering is still used to create fear and maintain the status quo. One song in the production specifically captures the frustration of Miller and film director Elia Kazan regarding the manipulation of truth by politicians.
The production, presented with Tila Arts and directed by Curve’s artistic director Nikolai Foster, aims to move beyond the reductive “bombshell” image often associated with Monroe. Foster praised Monroe’s innate understanding of filmmaking and acting, stating that the workshops allowed the team to view the couple's lives with such close proximity that they often forgot they were portraying two of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. The story also features other historical figures, including Laurence Olivier, who worked with Monroe on The Prince and the Showgirl.
Smith and Pelleymounter, who are longtime friends, have written more than three dozen songs for the project and are currently refining that selection. Their creative process includes using songwriting to delve into character, history, and psychology, with one song even taking inspiration from Eminem’s track Stan to depict the couple's correspondence. Other elements, such as bicycle rides, were inspired by famous photographs of the pair. This project follows other musical theatre developments from indie artists, including Passenger’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Smith’s own work-in-progress titled Young Romantics.
It was lampooned as the union of the “hourglass” and the “egghead” – the marriage, in the summer of 1956, between Hollywood superstar Marilyn Monroe and Pulitzer-winning playwright Arthur Miller. Now, a new stage musical is to give a nuanced and intimate portrait of that famous relationship, treat each as trailblazers
Smith and Pelleymounter had originally envisaged it as a musical about 50s America. They shared their songs with Charlotte Bogard Macleod, who has written the book, and had long been fascinated by the relationship that caught the public’s imagination.
