Andrew Lloyd Webber's STEPHEN WARD to Begin Previews at Aldwych Theatre, Winter 2013-14?

According to the Daily Mail, Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical STEPHEN WARD will take over the Aldwych Theatre as its West End home, with previews beginning after a 16-week run of THIS HOUSE, which opens in September at the same theatre.

Read the original report here.

As BWW previously reported, Alexander Hanson is at the top of the list to play Ward; he will take part in a run-through of the musical with Lloyd Webber, joined by Iris Roberts as Christine Keeler, and Carly Bawden as MAndy Rice Davies. Producer Robert Fox and director Richard Eyre (the National Theater, Mary Poppins) will both be at the reading. Hanson is also under consideration to play Simon Cowell in next year's X Factor musical at the London Palladium, so it remains to be seen where he will be cast.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical is based on the events surrounding the 1963 Profumo Affair, particularly Stephen Ward, who was the pimp that brought showgirl Christine Keeler and John Profumo together. The relationship between Keeler and Profumo will make up only about seven minutes of the narrative.

The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal. John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, became involved with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy; he then lied in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forcing the resignation of Profumo and damaging the reputation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government.

The project will reunite Lloyd Webber with lyricist Don Black and playwright Christopher Hampton - the team behind SUNSET BOULEVARD, which debuted in the West End in 1993 and later won seven 1995 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as "the most commercially successful composer in history." Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.