New musical A Mirrored Monet will receive its London premiere at Charing Cross Theatre where it will run from 14 March 2026 until 9 May 2026.

Written by composer, lyricist and dramatist Carmel Owen (Asylum: The Strange Case of Mary Lincoln), and directed by Christian Durham (Waiting for Godot, Fly More Than You Fall), this dramatic new musical will explore the man behind the much loved impressionist masterpiece – The Water Lilies.

Paris, 1916. The painter Claude Monet struggles to complete the commission that will define his legacy: The Water Lilies — a project on which his survival depends, with food and  essential supplies at stake as the First World War encroaches. Plagued by creative block, he retreats into memory, revisiting his early artist days with contemporaries Renoir and Manet, and his muse, Camille Doncieux.

Inspired by letters and diaries from Monet and his peers, A Mirrored Monet immerses audiences in the cafés, studios, and salons of Belle Époque Paris, with music and projections bringing the era vividly to life. An earlier iteration of A Mirrored Monet featured at Greenside’s Emerald Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023.

Award-winning actor Jeff Shankley (Starlight Express, Cats) will star as the iconic painter Claude Monet in 1916, with Dean John-Wilson (Your Lie in April: The Musical, Aladdin) as the artist in his youth. Completing the cast are John Addison (Pretty Woman, Titanic) as Leroy, Brooke Bazarian (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sondheim Unplugged) as Camille Doncieux, Natalie Day (Grease, To Wong Foo The Musical) as Blanche/Suzanne, Ritesh Manugula (My Fair Lady, Shirley) as Bazille, Sam Peggs (Oliver!, Les Misérables) as Renoir, Aaron Pryce-Lewis (Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables) as Manet, Steven Serlin (Here we Are, Shining in Misery) as Marquis, Nick Bligh covering Old Monet and Marquis, Samuel Haughton covering Renoir, Manet/Durand-Ruel, Leroy, Bazille and Meg Matthews covering Camille and Blanche/Suzanne.

Jeff Shankley said:

“As an author, it took a great deal to entice me back onto the West End stage after so long. But the opportunity to live inside the mind of one of the greatest Impressionist painters of all time was an experience I could not pass by. A Mirrored Monet is a beautiful work of art, exquisitely crafted—one that invites not imitation, but surrender.”