I wanted to postpone it because of calendar issues. I felt with David, from day one, a huge urgency to do.
Once we knew that he was really ill, and you hear a line like, “I’m a dying man who can’t die,” a line that was already there … David didn’t even know that he was sick at that moment, so Enda for sure didn’t know, you know? That line was already there. That was quite amazing to me, how deep that was. I think that on the whole, it was a great job making a story that has nothing to do with David, and everything to do with him at the same time. How conscious do you think he was of playing with these ideas? There’s a playfulness in certain things - the reclusiveness of the Thomas Newton character plays off, one could say, the perceived reclusiveness of Bowie during the 10-year period where he wasn’t performing or recording. I think they did a beautiful job at doing that. Enda, together with David, of course, made the song choices, then decided which song would fit in with what character best. It’s great that you say that, because it’s a beautiful and daring combination of new songs and existing, iconic songs: “Life On Mars?,” “All the Young Dudes,” you know. One of the things that was so stunning to me was how dramatically recontextualized the old songs were, and how well they worked in the context of this story - as if he had had it all in mind, 40 years ago. There really has to be a story there.” And a story it is.
The first meeting we had, he said, “The one thing I don’t want is a ‘jukebox musical,’ with one pretty song after the other one.” He says, “I really want to tell a story. I think he’s turning around in his grave, now, if he hears that.
In some weird way, you could on some level call this a “jukebox musical,” because it has some of his most famous songs, but it’s obviously a universe away from, say, Mamma Mia!. But when we did the workshop in New York in April of 2014, afterward, he said, “This is my dream.” I don’t think he ever used the word “musical.” He said “music theater.” And it feels like that for me, also. What was your sense of why now, and why this particular story?
#Lazarus play by david bowie full#
With a filmed performance from the show’s London run livestreaming this weekend to commemorate the anniversary of Bowie’s death (see Dice.fm for streaming times and ticket information), here’s our full 2016 interview with that show’s director, Ivo van Hove, for the first time.īowie had talked about doing musical theater for quite some time. The show picks up the story of Thomas Newton, the alien Bowie played in The Man Who Fell to Earth, 30 years later, while mixing old and new songs from Bowie’s catalog. The biggest surprise was his masterpiece of a final album, Blackstar, released just two days before his passing but there was also Lazarus, the remarkable off-Broadway play that opened a month earlier. Few artists of any stripe have ever exited this world with the panache of David Bowie, who left us with some of his most fascinating work just before his death on January 10th, 2016.
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