Leonardo
A new musical by Peter Sipos and Tony Calabretta
Behind the world’s most famous smile lies the story of the man who painted it.
Set amid the beauty, danger and intrigue of Renaissance Italy, Leonardo the musical explores the imagination and inner conflicts of Leonardo da Vinci during the creation of the Mona Lisa.
It is a story of genius and isolation, artistic freedom and institutional power—and of a man celebrated by history who struggled to find acceptance within his own world.
Music by Peter Sipos
Book by Tony Calabretta
A new musical in active development
THE MAN BEHIND THE SMILE
The face is recognised throughout the world. The man who painted it remains far more mysterious.
Leonardo the musical finds Leonardo da Vinci in Renaissance Florence, surrounded by admirers, assistants, patrons and adversaries, yet still searching for something that his fame cannot provide.
Leonardo is already celebrated for the extraordinary reach of his imagination. He is an artist, inventor and observer of the natural world—a man whose restless mind refuses to accept the limits placed upon knowledge. But beneath the reputation lies someone more vulnerable: an ageing artist haunted by his beginnings, conscious of time passing and living in a society that regards difference with suspicion.
When the merchant Francesco del Giocondo commissions Leonardo to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa, the seemingly straightforward assignment begins to reveal deeper and more personal truths.
The woman, the artist and the unfinished portrait become connected in unexpected ways. As Leonardo searches for the secret behind Lisa’s expression, the painting gradually reflects mysteries within his own life—his relationships, his identity and the mother from whom he was separated in childhood.
Around him, private desires collide with public expectations. Leonardo’s relationship with his companion Salai, the machinations of those who regard his ideas as dangerous and the growing power of the Church create a world in which personal freedom cannot be taken for granted.
At the centre of it all is the portrait that will become the Mona Lisa.
Why did Leonardo keep returning to it? What did he recognise within that enigmatic face? And what might the world’s most famous smile reveal about the man who created it?
The Leonardo Story
WHY LEONARDO—WHY NOW?
More than five centuries after his death, Leonardo da Vinci continues to fascinate us.
His paintings attract millions of visitors. His drawings reveal ideas far beyond the accepted knowledge of his time. His name has become synonymous with genius itself.
Yet familiarity can conceal the human being.
Behind the celebrated artist was an illegitimate child who grew up apart from his mother. Behind the inventor was an enquiring mind living in a world where unrestricted curiosity could be dangerous. Behind the public reputation was a private life that did not conform to the expectations of the society around him.
Leonardo uses the creation of the Mona Lisa as the doorway into that private world.
Although rooted in Renaissance Italy, its themes remain strikingly contemporary: the struggle to live authentically, the tension between free enquiry and institutional authority, the loneliness that can accompany exceptional ability and the human need to understand where we came from.
Leonardo’s world was one of astonishing beauty and possibility—but also of rigid social structures, religious power and the fear of ideas that challenged accepted truths.
The musical asks what it costs to be different in such a world.
It also explores something more intimate: whether great art can express what its creator is unable to say aloud.
THE MUSIC OF LEONARDO
Peter Sipos’s score brings together theatrical storytelling, strong melody and a contemporary musical sensibility.
The music moves between the energy and colour of Renaissance Florence and Leonardo’s more private emotional world. Ensemble numbers create the bustle of the city, while solos and intimate scenes explore longing, friendship, persecution, identity and the creative impulse that continually drives Leonardo forward.
The score does not attempt to imitate surviving Renaissance music. Instead, it uses an accessible modern theatrical language to bring Leonardo and those around him closer to a contemporary audience.
At the heart of the music is a contrast between the world’s image of Leonardo and the man he understands himself to be. Some characters celebrate him, others misunderstand or fear him, while Leonardo’s own songs reveal questions that fame and accomplishment have never answered.
The short film below captures the opening number as performed during the musical’s first British development workshop.
Workshop Performance: Opening Number
Members of the Thalian Theatre Company perform the opening number from Leonardo — A Renaissance Rhapsody (the name has since changed to just Leonardo), under the musical direction of Margaret Johnson and direction of Darren Barsby.
Recorded at Thalian Hall, Welwyn Garden City, on 16 March 2026.
The workshop presented a specially selected programme of songs and scenes rather than a complete performance of the musical. The film is therefore a glimpse of the work in development—not a representation of a finished professional production.
It does, however, reveal something that cannot be discovered from a script or score alone: the energy created when Leonardo’s world is placed in the hands of performers.
THE JOURNEY TO THE WORKSHOP STAGE
Leonardo grew from the creative partnership between Montreal composer Peter Sipos and playwright Tony Calabretta.
Both writers brought long theatrical experience to the project. Peter had already seen his musicals Jeanne, Robin Hood, Cantact and Dybbuk transformed through workshops, extensive rewriting and large-scale professional productions. Tony brought four decades of experience as an actor, playwright and screen performer, together with a strong instinct for character, humour and human relationships.
Over a period of years, the two writers developed a musical inspired by Leonardo’s life, his unconventional character and the enduring mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa.
The project subsequently attracted the serious interest of Montreal producer Allan Sandler, Peter’s friend and professional associate since 1994. Sandler hoped to bring the musical to the stage in Montreal during the 2026–27 theatrical season.
Those plans came to an abrupt and deeply sad end when Allan died suddenly in 2025.
The loss was both personal and creative, but Peter and Tony remained committed to the work. Rather than allowing the project to end with the production that might have been, they began looking for another way to hear the material performed and to discover what its next stage of development should be.
That opportunity emerged in Britain.
The Thalian Theatre Company was invited to undertake an exclusive workshop presentation of the musical. The project brought together a cast of experienced amateur performers and live musicians to explore selected portions of the score before an audience and invited guests.
On 16 March 2026, Leonardo took its first significant step onto a British stage.
LEONARDO IN THE WORKSHOP
Thalian Hall, 16 March 2026
The Thalian presentation was never intended to be a full production or a complete read-through of the musical.
Musical director Margaret Johnson and director Darren Barsby selected a programme of songs and scenes that would introduce the characters, demonstrate the range of Peter’s score and allow key relationships within the work to be experienced in performance.
The company rehearsed the material with two keyboards, bass guitar and percussion, giving the audience an opportunity to hear the music performed live and to encounter Leonardo’s world beyond the written page.
For the writers, the value of the evening extended far beyond presenting the songs.
Musical theatre changes when actors begin to inhabit it. A line that appears effective on paper may communicate differently when spoken. A song may reveal that a character has not yet been sufficiently established, or that an important emotional moment belongs elsewhere. Relationships that seem clear to their creators may need to be strengthened before an audience can fully invest in them.
The workshop therefore provided an essential opportunity to listen, observe and learn.
It allowed Peter and Tony to hear how the music moved through a theatrical space, how the humour reached an audience and where the developing story needed greater clarity, depth or emotional weight.
The performance also demonstrated the enthusiasm the work could inspire. Cast, musicians and creative team came together not to reproduce a finished show, but to help discover what the show might become.
That spirit of exploration remains at the centre of Leonardo’s continuing development.
A MUSICAL OPEN TO DEVELOPMENT
Peter Sipos and Tony Calabretta regard Leonardo as a living theatrical work.
They believe deeply in its central story, its characters and its musical possibilities. They also recognise that ambitious new musicals are rarely created in isolation or emerge fully formed.
They are developed through readings, workshops, discussion, experimentation and revision. Songs may be rewritten or moved. Scenes may be reshaped. Characters and relationships may acquire new dimensions once actors, directors and audiences become part of the creative process.
Peter’s own theatrical history has taught him the value of that process. Jeanne developed through successive productions and extensive professional revision before returning to the stage as a major $4.5 million production. Robin Hood continued to evolve through readings, workshops and three productions in the Seattle area over more than a decade.
Leonardo is now ready for its own continuing journey.
The writers welcome serious collaboration with an experienced producer and creative team. They are open to:
- Further rehearsed readings and developmental workshops.
- Dramaturgical development of the book and its central narrative.
- Refinement of character journeys and dramatic relationships.
- Professional examination and development of the lyrics.
- Reworking, repositioning or replacing musical numbers where the story requires it.
- Exploration of different staging styles and production scales.
- The contribution of directors, dramaturgs, lyricists and other experienced musical-theatre practitioners.
The writers are committed to the heart of Leonardo, but they do not regard every existing word, scene or song as untouchable.
They are looking for collaborators who can recognise what already lives within the material—and who will challenge them to make it deeper, clearer and more compelling.
THE WRITERS
Peter Sipos — Music
Peter Sipos began his professional musical career in Hungary, performing with some of the country’s most successful popular groups before emigrating to Montreal in 1980.
In Canada he continued to work as a performer, arranger and composer. His song Pour vous was recorded by Céline Dion for her 1985 album C’est pour toi, before Peter became increasingly involved in Montreal theatre.
His first full-length musical, Jeanne, premiered at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in 1995 and enjoyed a six-week sold-out run. Following extensive revision under Broadway director Martin Charnin, it returned in 1997 as a major production at Montreal’s Place des Arts and subsequently played Quebec City, totalling 147 performances.
Peter later collaborated with Charnin and Tony Award-winning book writer Thomas Meehan on Robin Hood, a musical developed through readings and productions in the United States and culminating in a New York Actors’ Equity reading in 2013.
That experience of collaboration, revision and theatrical development now informs his work on Leonardo .
Tony Calabretta — Book
Tony Calabretta is a Montreal playwright and actor with more than four decades of experience across theatre, film and television.
His plays include Damn Those Wedding Bells!, Don’t Blame It on the Stork and The Glam Mothers, works recognised for their humour, emotional warmth and strongly drawn characters. Damn Those Wedding Bells! was translated into French by celebrated Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay and subsequently toured in Quebec.
As an actor, Tony has appeared in more than 80 film and television productions, including The Day After Tomorrow, Stonewall and The Punisher: War Zone.
In Leonardo, his experience as both writer and performer contributes to a story that seeks to find the vulnerable, complicated human being inside an historical icon.
HELP SHAPE THE NEXT CHAPTER
Leonardo has travelled from the imaginations of its writers to its first British development workshop.
The workshop demonstrated the musical’s energy and promise. It also did precisely what a productive workshop should do: it revealed new questions, exposed opportunities and helped the writers see the work afresh.
Peter Sipos and Tony Calabretta are now incorporating what they have learned and preparing Leonardo for the next phase of its journey.
They are seeking an experienced producing partner and theatrical collaborators who respond to the possibilities within the musical—and who would like to participate meaningfully in shaping those possibilities for the professional stage.
The project is particularly interested in opportunities for further development in Britain, including rehearsed readings, workshops and collaboration with a London-based creative or producing team.
A synopsis, script, score, selected recordings, workshop material and further information are available for serious professional consideration.