David Bowie Co-writes for A New Stage Piece In the Works

David Bowie is currently working on something that takes him back to his Ziggy Stardust beginnings, and we honestly couldn’t be more excited.

Bowie is working together with Tony-award winner Enda Walsh for a project entitled Lazarus. Walsh returns to the New York Theatre Workshop after his award-winning success with the musical Once. Lazarus itself is based on the 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. Written by Walter Tevis, the sci-fi novel focuses on the tragedy of an Anthean alien named Thomas Jerome Newton, tasked by his people to create a means to ferry their race from their dying home planet to Planet Earth peacefully. An introduction to earth’s customs leads him to a life of alcoholism, and he is soon thrust into the invasive interrogations and tests of the CIA and the FBI. The iconic 1976 film adaption of the novel was directed by Nicolas Roeg, and Thomas Jerome Newton was portrayed by none other than David Bowie himself.

Broadway will soon see this work in the theater company’s 2015/2016 Season, and is due to premiere in NYC Winter 2015. the play will feature new compositions by David Bowie, as well as new arrangements for a number of his older songs.

The whole project has been mostly kept on a hush-hush basis, and the creative plan intend to keep it that way until further notice. James C. Nicola, the artistic director of New York Theater Workshop himself says he’s not entirely sure if should call the project a musical or a play, but he can say that it’s been secretly been in development for a number of years.

Bowie himself will not be appearing as part of the project’s cast, but he is no stranger to the stage. In an earlier part of his musical career in the 1980’s, he played the title role of The Elephant Man on Broadway for three months.