Obviously, the originals such as the titular first piece, where Hall defines his definition of his character, both Bowie and not, both The Man and not, but also the powerful penultimate duet “When I Met You”. There are eighteen Bowie songs in total, and a number of standouts. Hall clearly going crazy, then everyone else doing the same, pretty soon you’re right there with them. But that also really draws you in, makes it all meaningful without an eight episode binge. The emotions are also quite grand, which fits when you’re watching live in a crowded venue, but can be a bit much on your computer screen, if you’re used to stoic dramas and ironic comedies. Upon the musical’s debut, some theater critics thought it all “pretentious rubbish,” and if you don’t like oblique, symbolic theater, this is not for you. QRO won’t lay out the story, and admittedly it is far from straightforward (there are characters who are only in Newton’s head). The women of the play such as Lennox and Sophia Anne Caruso nicely reposition the songs from the female perspective Bowie was groundbreakingly transgender in his art, easing the shift, but these are still original takes. Hall walks the fine line, leaning into the conflicted, confused emotions of the character, rather than what you might think Bowie would do. Hall and the entire cast don’t sing like a cover band, but also don’t pretend as if they’re not influenced, as if they’re not doing their own Bowie. We all have done our own Bowie impressions, even if just in the shower, singing like we’re Ziggy Stardust (or at least a Spider From Mars). That’s also the case with the song performances. It is obviously very tricky to play basically the David Bowie stand-in, and Hall has the skill and clout to make it his own role (he also has his own music chops, fronting his own band Princess Goes To the Butterfly Museum – QRO photos). These aren’t the first times that he’s experienced emotions, but he still doesn’t know how to handle them, how to handle still being alive (“I’m the dying man who won’t die”). Hall is pretty much perfectly cast as the very human alien Newton, having previously played the rather alien human Dexter. The play actually seems to take place well after the events of Earth, sort of a sequel, in a very Bowie way (think “Ashes to Ashes” as the pseudo-sequel to “Space Oddity”), with The Man having locked himself away in an NYC apartment. While it debuted in Bowie’s home of New York City, including starring Cristin Milioti (the long-awaited mother of How I Met Your Mother), and the original cast recording was from them, the filmed version was from London (with British thespian Amy Lennox in Miloti’s role), and had previously been shown for one night only in May of 2018. Dexter of Dexter, as the main character, Thomas Jerome Newton. Instead, it takes both well-known, lesser-known & original pieces, and puts them together around a story based off of The Man Who Fell To Earth, both the original 1963 Walter Tevis novel, and the 1976 Nicolas Roeg film adaption that Bowie memorably starred in, the tale of an alien who ‘fell to earth’ in order to save his dying planet, but succumbed to the planet’s corruption and vices. Lazarus is based around a collection of David Bowie’s songs, but it is not some slick, get-rich-quick, ‘play the hits’ Broadway moneymaker. For 2021, a recorded performance of it will livestream all weekend, from his birthday to his death-day. Before and after his death, new Bowie material has been released on his birthday, from his 2013 single “Where Are We Now?” ( QRO review) to his posthumous No Plan EP ( QRO review), which was him performing his original songs for Lazarus. That death shook not just the musical world but the Earth as a whole, and is still reverberating. The iconic Bowie put together Lazarus with Enda Walsh in 2015, and it was one of the last works he completed before his death on January 10th, 2016, two days after his sixty-nineteenth birthday. A really special one is coming this weekend, David Bowie’s musical Lazarus. Yes, 2020 ended, but as U2 warned us, “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” People have been getting by, even reinventing, like a number of livestreams by artists & performances who can’t be in-person. You are likely reading this stuck at home, either laboring over Zoom, have an at-risk essential job, or out of work and don’t know when/if you’ll be back. We live in very strange times, from Britain being under lockdown to right-wingers storming the Capitol as the President & others basically egged them on.
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