As many know, Dexter and Six Feet Under‘s Michael C. Hall is also a renowned musical theater actor, who most recently appeared in the Broadway production of Hedwig in the Angry Inch, and in the past was praised for his portrayal of the emcee in Cabaret. It’s now been announced that he’ll continue his career of uncharacteristically nuanced identity-themed musicals in the off-Broadway adaptation of Walter Tevis’ novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth, titled Lazarus.
David Bowie played the principal role, Thomas Newton, in the film, and the play is the collaborative creation of Bowie (who’s written new music for the production; it’ll also feature some of his old work) and Edna Walsh (who wrote the Broadway adaptation of Once). It’ll be directed by the famous (as much as any director of large-scale experimental theater can be) Belgian theater maker, Ivo Van Hove.
The plot follows Newton — a man from another planet who’s come to Earth due to a drought on his home planet. (Perhaps the new adaptation will see the character simply written as a Californian?) Here, he becomes an entrepreneur and is introduced to the planet’s pleasures by a certain Mary-Lou, a woman from New Mexico, until she finds out he’s an alien and responds with narrow-mindedness. Thus begins his descent into alcoholism and, once his secret has been shared with the government, oppression.
Previews for Lazarus begin on November 18 at New York Theater Workshop, with the official opening date set for December 7.