David Bowie is co-writing a live theater work based loosely on The Man Who Fell to Earth, Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 sci-fi art film starring the singer. The new piece, which has been in secret development for years, is called Lazarus and Bowie is collaborating with Enda Walsh, the Irish playwright who helped bring Once to the stage. It will be directed by avant-garde Belgian director Ivo van Hove. Bowie will not perform in the new work, though he will contribute new songs, and they are not calling it a musical. The New York Times talked to James C. Nicola, the artistic director of New York Theater Workshop:
He said Mr. Bowie, who declined to comment, had been seeking to do a theatrical work inspired by Walter Tevis’s 1963 novel “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” and brought the idea to Mr. van Hove, who in turn brought the project to Mr. Walsh and to the New York theater.
“It’s going to be a play with characters and songs — I’m calling it music theater, but I don’t really know what it’s going to be like, I just have incredible trust in their creative vision,” Mr. Nicola said. “I’m really excited about it. These are three very different sensibilities to be colliding.”
Lazarus is set to open later this year. If you’ve never seen The Man Who Fell to Earth, it was reissued by Criterion a few years ago but that edition is now out of print. It is available via streaming sites like Amazon and Google Play. You can watch the trailer below…
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