Michael C. Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso in Lazarus in The New York Theater Workshop, New York. Picture: Jan Versweyveld
Lazarus continues at The New York Theater Workshop, New York until 20 January.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
The man who fell to earth from a faraway planet decades ago in the 1976 film aptly titled The Man Who Fell to Earth is still having a rough time. In the new Off-Broadway musical Lazarus, a follow-up to the film and the 1963 Walter Tevis novel on which it’s based, the man, Thomas Newton, spends his days watching television and drinking gin. He lives in a penthouse, but it’s sparsely furnished and crowded with distracting folks. Some of them are real, or at least one of them is: an overly attentive personal assistant who wants more from Newton than he wants to give. The others may be hallucinatory, memories, ghosts or whatever.
The show is the brainchild of David Bowie, who starred in the movie in a persona-defining performance. According to a programme note, Bowie, wanting to revisit the Newton character in a theatre piece, connected with playwright Enda Walsh as a co-writer for the script. Bowie offered his entire catalogue of music to the project. The Belgian experimental theatre director Ivo van Hove was brought into the mix, and the show began development at New York Theatre Workshop, a small but potent Off-Broadway venue, where both Walsh and van Hove have tight relationships. Walsh wrote the script for the musical Once, which originated at NYTW, and van Hove had already directed seven shows for the organisation.
Bowie is not performing, but with his name and music attached, the show became the fastest-selling offering in NYTW history and the run was quickly extended by three weeks and then three extra performances. The final performance on 20 January will be a benefit with tickets starting at $1,000.
For serious theatregoing wannabes, van Hove is also a strong draw. The director currently has a highly praised mounting of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge on Broadway and will follow that in the spring with Miller’s The Crucible.
With the support of commercial producer Robert Fox, NYTW has given Lazarus a production that boasts tremendous values: a top-notch 11-strong cast, a seven-piece band and eye-popping video effects. The score includes new arrangements of Bowie vintage hits such as ‘Changes’ and ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ along with a handful of new pieces, including a title song. They are sung with relish and power.
What more can you wish for? Well, maybe a narrative that grabs your attention and gives cohesive meaning to the sterling songs and impressive effects. As Newton and his intruders wander through his apartment, there are meditations on alienation, isolation, loss and other themes appropriate to an alien trapped in a harsh world. But little or none of it ties together in a compelling story. The show only makes dramatic sense when the actors move into Bowie’s music. The ingratiating tempos and melodic strains make the frequently agonised lyrics quite seductive.
Michael C. Hall, best known for his television work as the likeable eponymous serial killer on cable television’s Dexter, inhabits the role of Newton with non-stop fervour and convincing desperation. Michael Esper is the embodiment of creepy as a fellow named Valentine, who at one moment despairs quietly how nice things in life, like friendship and being in love, can turn sour, and in the next moment may stick a knife in your ribs. Both Hall and Esper have already earned their rocker stripes on Broadway: Hall as a replacement lead in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Esper with roles in both Sting’s The Last Ship and American Idiot. The two further burnish their resumés with their work here.
As Newton’s personal assistant, Cristin Milioti, who starred on stage in Once, also deserves plaudits for her intense singing. But like any endless whiner and wailer, the character becomes a bit irritating when she’s not singing. More palatable but also more mysterious is the blonde sylph-like creature portrayed most affectingly by Sophia Anne Caruso. Identified in the cast list as ‘girl’, she keeps appearing and then disappearing, and eventually gains Newton’s affection. Is she his extraterrestrial daughter or the specter of an earthling girl murdered but left ‘not properly dead’ by a man enacted by none other than Alan Cumming, who turns up only on video?
And speaking of video, it, along with music, is probably the real star of van Hove’s production. Tal Yarden is the video designer, and much of it is projected on a giant television screen sitting centrestage. There are close-up streamings of the action on the stage, but there are also cityscapes intermingled with cartoon-likes space ships and images of a woman, whom we presume to be Mary Lou, Newton’s one-time earthling girlfriend. The show also achieves some breathtaking moments when the video images suddenly extend from the television screen and cover the entire set. It’s video that frequently is in heavy competition with the actors for the attention of the audience.
Lazarus could be well interpreted as an homage to the singular Bowie and the Newton character he created. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I have never closely followed Bowie’s work. That may be a key reason why this ambitious show did not quite enthrall me. Dedicated Bowie fans, who filled many of the seats at the performance I attended and greeted the final blackout with a standing ovation, might well give the show a five-star rating.
Ron Cohen
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