BAZ BAMIGBOYE: New theatre to be built for the last project David Bowie worked on before he died
The last show David Bowie worked on before he died - a sequel of sorts to The Man Who Fell To Earth - will land in London before long.
The show, Lazarus, was playing off Broadway when the Starman passed away in early January.
It was co-written by Bowie and dramatist Enda Walsh and starred Michael C. Hall as Thomas Jerome Newton - the character Bowie played in Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 classic film The Man Who Fell To Earth, which was itself based on a novel by Walter Tevis.
The last show David Bowie worked on before he died - a sequel of sorts called Lazarus to The Man Who Fell To Earth - will land in London before long
Except that Newton’s now known as just Newton. And he’s a wealthy dude. And because he’s an extra-terrestrial, he hasn’t aged a day. Directed by Ivo van Hove at the New York Theatre Workshop, the entire run was sold out.
There was talk of Lazarus heading to London last year, with Bowie closely involved in conversations with producer Robert Fox. And now, I understand an 800-seat temporary theatre will be built as part of the Kings Cross Theatre complex (where The Railway Children is running) to house it.
Fox wouldn’t comment, but the show’s creative team want Hall to play Newton in London — if he’s available.
No start date has been set, but talk is of a late autumn 2016 or early spring 2017 opening.
Lazarus, which has a surreal vibe about it, will likely undergo tweaking and fine-tuning before it opens in London.
Several of Bowie’s most famous songs are included in the show, among them Changes, Absolute Beginners and The Man Who Sold The World. It will be huge.
Andrew Lloyd Webber could not comprehend why the musical Showboat, which garnered five star notices, would sail out of one of his theatres early. ‘It’s a bloody good show,’ he said, with genuine hurt in his voice. ‘I just don’t get it.’
Showboat steamed down from Sheffield and into the New London, but closes on August 27, so please go to see it before then!
Meanwhile, the composer’s hit Broadway musical School Of Rock, based on the Jack Black film, was due to open at the New London next May. ‘We’re looking into whether we can get into the theatre in November. But we’re by no means confirmed,’ he said.
Andrew Lloyd Webber could not comprehend why the musical Showboat, which garnered five star notices, would sail out of one of his theatres early
He, director Laurence Connor and writer Julian Fellowes are still auditioning for kids who can play an instrument, sing, dance and act — and a leading man.
‘I would say there’s a 40 per cent chance of it happening this autumn,’ Lloyd Webber (who’s a bit of an air guitar rock god on the quiet) told me.
School Of Rock took four Tony nominations in New York last week.
Jones brothers are aiming to shock
Toby Jones is discussing what appears to be bathroom etiquette with Anne Reid.
The pair play mother and son in a domestic thriller film called Kaleidoscope that’s been written and directed by Rupert Jones, Toby’s younger brother.
I’m at a studio in Stratford, East London, and on a monitor I can see Reid’s character standing in a bathroom doorway, discussing something with her screen offspring.
Later, Ms Reid, in a towelling bathrobe, flops next to me as Jones is filmed doing scenes on his own.
‘I’ve driven him totally bonkers,’ Reid tells me, as she nods towards Jones on a screen.
‘Kaleidoscope is a good title because his mind’s messed up. They’ve got this very dark past,’ she says, and then stops.Â
‘Can someone tell me what I’m supposed to reveal? And what I’m not?!’ she asks, and when no reply is forthcoming, says: ‘It’s a drawing-room comedy, darling!’
Toby Jones opens up on starring in a domestic thriller film called Kaleidoscope that’s been written and directed by Rupert Jones, Toby’s younger brother
Later I meet Jones in a dressing room. ‘There are a lot of spoilers in this because the whole film is about unlocking the back story,’ he says, cautiously. Jones’s character, Carl, has succeeded in getting his life back together after some upheaval. ‘Then an aspect of his past, in the shape of his mother, returns and that is the thing that triggers all the chaos.’
What is it about his mother, exactly? ‘She’s overbearing.’
Jones tells me he is playing Carl as ‘normal, but slightly off’.
He and his sibling studied early Roman Polanski movies such as Repulsion and thought a lot about Hitchcock before making the movie.
They worked together on a short film a decade ago called The Sickie, but this is their first feature together. ‘I think he did write it with me in mind, but he wasn’t always sure I was going to do it because these things don’t always coincide,’ says the actor.
But by the time Jones had been asked to look over the script, he found the three weeks needed to make the shocking thriller.
Jack Farthing - nasty George Warleggan in Poldark - is rehearsing (with director James Macdonald) Mike Bartlett’s new play Wild at Hampstead Theatre with Caoilfhionn Dunne and John Mackay. Farthing said it is ‘definitely inspired’ by Edward Snowden. ‘It starts with a man in a hotel in Russia having leaked a large amount of classified information to the world. It’s a dramatic imagining of what may have happened.’ Wild runs from June 10.Â
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