NYTW Premieres Stage Musical Written By David Bowie

David Bowie science fiction musical comes to Off Broadway

News

David Bowie announced that Off Broadway’s New York Theater Workshop will stage the world premiere of Lazarus, a musical adaptation of the Walter Tevis’ 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, which marked Bowie’s debut as a film in Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 movie adaptation. The acclaimed musician had acted before in smaller films, but before his own career made him a Starman.

Bowie co-wrote Lazaruswith Tony winning playwright Enda Walsh. It will be directed by Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler, More Stately Mansions), who is fresh off his production of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage. The show will be part of NYTW’s 2015-16 season. It will include new songs written by Bowie specifically for this production, as well as previously recorded songs in new arrangements.

Bowie won’t appear in Lazarus, which centers on the character of Thomas Jerome Newton, an extraterrestrial who travels to earth to look for water he can send back to his drought-plagued planet.

James C. Nicola is the artistic director. Jeremy Blocker will be the managing director.

Lazaruswill be peformed by NYTW’s award-winning company-in-residence Elevator Repair Service.

The New York Theatre Workshop is in its 31st season.

David Bowie “has released over thirty albums throughout his fifty years in the music industry, including The Man Who Sold The World, Space Oddity, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Station to Station, Young Americans; Lowand Heroes with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti; Outside, with Eno, Heathen, and, most recently, The Next Day, which was critically lauded across the world, and in 2014 the compilation Nothing Has Changed. As an actor, Bowie appeared on Broadway in The Elephant Man, and can be seen in the films The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan, as well as Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation Of Christ, Tony Scott’s The Hungerand Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. In 2006, Bowie starred as himself in an acclaimed episode of Extras, Ricky Gervais’ series on HBO. In 1996, Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1999, he became a Commandeur dans L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” according to the press statement.