David Bowie Back With Killer New Songs, But He Won’t Appear In His Broadway Show

David Bowie is a music icon in a world where the word legend is used all too freely. However, after a remarkable 53-year-long career, no-one will deny that Bowie is a true music legend.

It was recently announced in Inquisitr that David Bowie is currently writing a new musical stage show, which is based on Bowie’s 1976 movie and cult classic, The Man Who Fell To Earth. Bowie’s musical is to be named Lazarus and will premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop in December this year.

In an interview with the BBC, the shows director Ivo van Hove said that Bowie, who is co-writing the show with Irish playwright Enda Walsh, has written some killer new songs for the show. Van Hove said, “Some of the songs sound as if you have heard them for ever, like classics.”

Van Hove said preparations for Lazarus were already “far advanced” and described the new Bowie material as “really great stuff.”

“There are romantic songs, because [Bowie’s] songs are deeply romantic, and there are songs about violence and the ugly world surrounding us. That’s what these new songs are about.”

Van Hove also admitted that some of David Bowie’s classic songs are being given a makeover for the new show. Van Hove also added that David Bowie told him “he is going to give his songs a new skin.”

According to NME, Van Hove also had news that is sure to disappoint Bowie’s fans. The director revealed that Bowie “will not be on stage” in the new show. He said, “I don’t think that is the thing he likes most in his life,” but Van Hove claimed that the project was a very important one for David Bowie. It appears that Bowie intends to let his songwriting rather than his acting take centre stage this time around.

According to the Independent, David Bowie’s co-writer, Edna Walsh is the award-winning writer of the stage musical Once, and director Van Hove won the Best Director Award at this year’s Olivier Awards for his acclaimed version of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

With David Bowie writing new songs and adapting old songs for Lazarus and with an award winning writing a directing team in support, it seems that David Bowie’s new project is an exciting one for the 68-year-old star. Bowie’s fans hope that the new songs will be performed by the star at some stage.

Bowie released an album, The Next Day, in 2013, but he has not performed live since he suffered a heart attack in 2004.

[Photos by Frank Micelotta and Patrick Riviere/Getty Images]