TV Obsessive
Lazarus Brings Bowie Back to Life
Rachel: It’s been five years since David Bowie died. Between January 8th and 10th of this year, Dice offered die-hard fans a chance to stream his last work of art, Lazarus. The jukebox musical filled with classic and new songs from his extensive catalogue while serving as a sequel of The Man Who Fell To Earth.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect but I threw down the money—which went to support the arts amid the COVID-19 pandemic—and settled in. The stream was taken during the London run, which also featured many of the same cast from the off-Broadway production. The staging was sparse, almost a blank canvas to let Bowie’s sound and vision filter through a new lens. Co-written by Enda Walsh and directed by Ivo Van Hove, it starts simply enough, focusing on the gin-drunk and marooned alien Thomas Jerome Newton (Michael C. Hall).
Soon enough, we find the characters that orbit around him are also lost in their own ways. His assistant Elly (Amy Lennox) is stuck in a loveless marriage and is obsessed with Thomas and his long-lost love Mary-Lou, wanting to become her. There’s also a blonde girl who says she can save him (a pre-Beetlejuice Sophia Anne Caruso). Is she just a figment of his imagination or something else? And then there’s the black suited Valentine (Michael Esper) who’s a serial killer looking for his next mark.
As the songs unravel, the characters and their emotions blur and blot against the stage thanks to a mix of exceptional lighting and blocking. In many moments, it felt like Bowie and team were trying to channel David Lynch esthetics, letting both the dreamy and nightmarish visuals buoy the emotional connection to the characters. It was easy to get lost and let go of the long list of unanswered questions my analytical mind had and just FEEL. The cast’s vocal work elevates the source material, but Caruso is the standout star for me, who was just 14 at the time. (“No Plan” and “Life on Mars?” are just incredible.)
The musical’s title song comes from a song that ended up on Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. While that album remains to me the epitome of processing pain and death into art, the same concepts apply in the musical. I hope I’ll be able to see it in some form or fashion in the future, and delve deeper into Bowie’s meditations on the human condition.
Listen to the Original Cast Recording on Spotify:
