Lazarustransferred to London's King Cross Theatre the following year, with the original cast also performing in the London production. Ivo van Hove directs the musical, which originally premiered in New York in 2015. Lazarusfeatures music by David Bowie, including "When I Met You", "Killing A Little Time", "Life on Mars" and "Heroes". Now on a new planet, the alien has to navigate a new way of life, while encouraging his home planet to emigrate too.
Inspired by Walter Tevis' 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth, Lazaruscentres on Thomas Jerome Newton, an extraterrestrial who suddenly finds himself on Earth. 2021, which would have marked David Bowie's 73rd birthday.
The recording was taken for archive purposes though given a limited released as a digital stream from 08-10 January 2021 as both a celebration of David Bowie’s birthday and fifth anniversary of his death.The musical Lazarus, which David Bowie helped develop will be available to stream early next year, it has been announced. Lazarus was performed at Kings Cross Theatre from 25 October 2016 – 22 January 2017.
And Sophia Anne Caruso gave a stunning performance as the enigmatic yet vulnerable Girl. Amy Lennox as Elly, Newton’s personal assistant, gives a stunning and sometimes quite violent rendition of Changes, whilst the character undergoes her own transition. Well-known songs take on new meaning within the context of the story. Although he is still anchored in the reality of his life, he is also being pulled away from this until that reality blurs into his fantasy.
Does he die? Does he make it home? It feels more like a one hour fifty minute descent into psychotic depression whereupon the release comes from a full retreat from the real world.Īs audience members, we are experiencing that transition alongside Newton. I’ve read a few online interpretations of the poignant ending of Lazarus. At times it gives us an odd disconnect – watching pre-recorded action on a screen on stage which is also being acted live and watched by Newton creates a timey-wimey dream like feel. Projection is a heavily used feature throughout the show. Halls on stage, which is an incredible moment care of set designer Jan Versweyveld and Video Designer Tal Yarden’s brilliant projections. It’s a deep and physical performance with a flavour of Bowie’s delivery in his vocals and he’s absolutely mesmerising.ĭuring Killing A Little Time, we end up with two Michael C. He doesn’t go with an English accent and neither does he produce a carbon copy of Bowie or his singing. Hall gives a charismatic performance as Newton.
You don’t have to have seen the movie or read the book because key themes are referenced as part of the backstory. Lazarus is a follow up to the original story. It’s one of a few literary references throughout the show which at times echoes A Christmas Carol – one of the main characters indeed being a ghost named Marley. ‘In this sleep of death what dreams may come,’ Newton breathes at one point, echoing Hamlet’s difficulties and isolation, although death ironically being apparently unachievable.
A very rich man, refugeed from a home he cannot return to, who cannot die, cannot age and is left alone in his own personal hell. He becomes caught in a cycle of human vices, pining for a lost love. Newton is a humanoid alien who has come to Earth in search of a way to send water to his home planet, which is experiencing severe drought. Lazarus is ‘inspired’ by The Man Who Fell To Earth, a 1963 book by Walter Tevis, later made into a movie starring David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton. Of course a ‘musical’ by Bowie working with writer Enda Walsh was never going to be anything like Jersey Boys or The Band and boundary pushing within the genre is always extremely welcome. It’s been labelled by some as ‘pretentious’ which is unfair. It’s something much more profound and occasionally, experienced on a emotional level rather than as a passive viewer. The show features songs by Bowie, as well as some new ones specifically written in, but it is not a frivolous jukebox musical. At the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore responds to a question from Harry saying: “Of course it is happening inside your head Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” And this is how Lazarus feels by the end.Īlthough billed as a musical, the somewhat abstract storyline and production coupled with inspired design and heavy-weight acting definitely makes this a play with music.