LAZARUS MUSICAL SERIAL
LAZARUS MUSICAL TV

They may not even be real, but their presence makes more sense of some of Lazarus’s odder scenes. They might be angels, or a Greek chorus, or something else. There’s also three dissolute, unnamed teenage girls that drift in and out of the action, sometimes just standing in the background. Having made a huge splash, he then abruptly disappears too. Valentine’s out to “Kill Love”, and although Espers gives a great performance Valentine remains tangential to the story until near the end, when he finally ‘gets’ to Newton.

LAZARUS MUSICAL SERIAL

He’s a man with fuzzy motivations, present perhaps more because of Bowie’s interest in noir-ish serial killers than anything else. Michael Esper gives him a baleful, lurking presence, charismatic, but vulnerable. On the flipside, she’s also the focus of Lazarus’s most upsetting sequence.Īnd then there’s Valentine, the serial killer from Valentine’s Day made flesh. Her character becomes a muse for Newton, giving him hope to build a new spacecraft and finally return home.

Her performance of No Plan is very Broadway, but really works. Then there’s the unnamed Girl, a lost, waifish teenager, only visible to Newton, played by Sophia Ann Caruso, who’s superb. It’s a shame that she disappears from the action as quickly as she arrives. She spends much of her time in a state of part-undress, as she climbs in and out of outfits with a raw, gawky physicality that cleverly shows Ellie’s torment.

Lennox’s performance is raw and gutsy, singing Changes first as a chintzy shuffle, then as a domestic meltdown. Mary Lou’s emblematic presence leads to a haunting of sorts, as Newton’s ‘assistant’ Ellie (Amy Lennox), escaping a failing marriage, sheds her dowdy get-up and begins to dress as Mary Lou, replete with blue wig, in an attempt to seduce the tortured Newton. She’s cast here as a blue-haired manic pixie dream girl, looking uncannily like Ramona Flowers from ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The World’. She only ever appears on screen as a ghostly figure in his reveries. One of the running threads of ‘Lazarus’ is Newton’s pining for old flame Mary Lou, from the original story. One of them represents the past, one definitely represents death, and one is arguably an actual ghost. Three characters enter Newton’s life, in what could be seen as a twisted version of ‘A Christmas Carol’. Hall’s reverent to Bowie, but doesn’t ape him, singing in a powerful baritone that’s got a dash of the Dame, but is his own. Hall’s Newton is more mournful than Bowie’s, and very funny when it comes to it, but the lines drawn between them are obvious to see. He’s very physical, throwing himself around the set in a cartilage-punishing tour de force. He’s lying, prone on the floor as the audience files in, and he’s onstage for every minute of the show. Hall inhabits Newton completely, and never breaks character for a second. Bowie’s music (performed by the cast and a tight pit band) drives and adds to the narrative, even if it’s simply there to illustrate Newton’s hallucinations, like the surreal It’s No Game sequence.

LAZARUS MUSICAL TV

Staged by Director Ivo Van Hove on a single set, ‘Lazarus’ revolves around Newton’s New York apartment, where he shambles about, watching TV on a huge screen, subsisting on gin and twinkies – alive, but unable to die. It’s basically the story of a homesick alien going mad in his apartment. Bowie famously shared a body with Newton in ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’. And isn’t it just like David Bowie to take the jukebox musical and twist it into something non-linear, oblique, and challenging? ‘Lazarus’ is a continuation of the story of his favourite alien, Thomas Jerome Newton. Hall, a few minutes into ‘Lazarus’, as he essays a dramatic rendition of the title track. “Ain’t that just like me?” sings Michael C. Perhaps the most honest is ‘Jersey Boys’, which is just as unashamedly showbiz as the real Four Seasons. ‘Sunny Afternoon’ allows Ray Davies to keep rewriting the Kinks story in his own image, and continue to annoy his brother Dave. The current authorised Motown story allows Berry Gordy to look more sympathetic, rather than the ruthless ringmaster that was screwing Diana Ross and didn’t want ‘What’s Goin’ On’ to come out. It’s usually designed to be a feelgood couple of hours, a Disneyfied version of a pop career with added jazz hands. The jukebox musical has a curious place in pop culture. ❉ The immersive world of David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s ‘Lazarus’ comes to London – and it’s thrilling, writes Martin Ruddock.

Lazarus musical