David Bowie is working on a new musical play based on the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth with Irish playwright Enda Walsh and it will feature new music.
The New York Times reports that the musical is entitled Lazarus and will be presented off-Broadway by the New York Theater Workshop and will be directed by Belgian director Ivo van Howe.
Dublin-born Walsh, who wrote the acclaimed plays Ballyturk and The Walworth Farce and adapted the musical Once for the stage, has been secretly collaborating with Bowie on the production.
The New York Theater Workshop says that Bowie will not appear on-stage in the show, which is based on The Man Who Fell to Earth, the 1976 sci-fi film directed by Nicolas Roeg in which Bowie plays Thomas Newton, an alien who comes to earth in human form.
The company's artistic director James C. Nicola told the New York Times that Lazarus, “has been in secret development for some years” and focuses on the story of Thomas Newton. It will include both new Bowie songs and new arrangements of existing songs.
“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.”
