Michael C. Hall in "Lazarus"

 

Lazarus

                                       by David Shultz

How can one possibly make sense of this jukebox musical without sounding deranged? Based on the cult film classic “The Man Who Fell To Earth” directed by Nicolas Roeg, it featured David Bowie as a stranded alien, who attempted to return to his galaxy seeking sustenance with much needed water for his parched planet. He never made it back home, and was stranded on earth for eternity. Not unlike the feeling I was experiencing at the New York Theatre Workshop the night I attended. This hazy, hallucinatory sorta sequel takes off where the original film ended. 

This two-hour intermission less work is incredibly weird and almost impossible to comprehend. The talent both behind the scenes and in front of the audience is top notch.  The comingling of uber hot director Ivo Van Hove, writers Enda Walsh and Mr. Bowie, set designer Jan Versweyveld, and big name performers Michael Esper, Cristin Milioti, and Michael C. Hall seems on paper at least, to be a scrumptious mélange that should by all accounts prove to be dazzling both intellectually and visually stunning to boot.  

What happened between conception, rehearsal, previews and opening night is a mystery. The end result onstage is dramatic, yet stillborn…. totally inert with so many missed opportunities unfulfilled. The plot, if I can even call it that, is ephemeral, and purposefully vague.

Michael C. Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso
(© Jan Versweyveld)

Michael C. Hall portrays Newton , the Bowie character in the film. He has a deer in the headlights expression throughout most of the play, and soothes his pain on trying to return to his planet with gin, from a fully stocked refrigerator and pops the occasional Twinkie for sustenance. His newly hired assistant Elly ( Cristin Milioti) attempts to help him and is drawn to him sexually. This is complicated, since Elly seems to resemble Newton ’s ex-girlfriend from his planet. She is still alive back home…or is she? Doubts swirl as visual projections splayed onstage occasionally show this woman in various slow-mo moments. Next up, appearing to be a vision, or perhaps a real-life companion, is a young golden-haired teenager. This ephemeral creature named Girl (Sophia Anne Caruso) teases and taunts our titular hero with intimations of creating a spacecraft to return home. This woman-girl assumes many guises intellectually, and she may indeed be the physical or imaginary musing of Newton ’s mind. Is she actually his daughter, who is drought stricken back home on his planet? Is she his girlfriend as a young girl? Everything and everyone in this work is up for debate. Eventually a sinister man enters the scene; who is he? What connection he has to the other people in the work is up for grabs as well. Creepy and menacing Valentine (Michael  Esper) capers throughout the show glaring at various denizens that populate the environment. Three blue haired girls occasionally appear onstage and work as a Greek Chorus. How can you tell them apart? Not that easy since Teenage Girl 1, Teenage Girl 2 and Teenage Girl 3 are indistinguishable from one another. What realities are they living in? They float in and out of the setting. Interesting ideas and characters are revealed then suddenly drop out of sight for no apparent reason. The entire enterprise is unrepentantly dense and solemn. This makes for a very long dirge of an evening. The saving grace, if there is any glimmer of hope, lands squarely in the musical interludes. Mr. Bowie’s enigmatic and beautiful songs are exquisitely rendered with power and grace.

Brynn Williams, Michael C. Hall, Drystina Alabado in "Lazarus"

 

When the play stops being masturbatory, and the songs begin, the performers give meaning and gravity to their soulful yet blank characters. At any given time, where or what is actually happening onstage is up to the viewer to discern. At one moment late in the work, someone is knifed and the visual backdrop seamlessly shows a black inkblot that increases in size and enlarges exponentially. Looking very much like a Rorschach blot, that visual  is a metaphor for the entire production. Whatever you see or project onto this chaotic space is your own version. Two hours of Rorschach.

Director Ivo Van Hove shows off, in his usual visually striking manner; Highly choreographed physicality, barefoot clad actors, enigmatic facial expressions and tics as well as elongated verbal pauses, dance-like movement. Frequent set designer Jan Versweyveld posits these odd folks in a sparse clinical setting. Stage left, an eerie white refrigerator, stocked with gin, Stage right, a rumpled bed with clothes strewn throughout. Center stage, a blank canvas, that frequently is shot through with all manner of visual photographs and moving images that ricochet in dizzying fashion that spread out to the outer walls. These visual designs by Tal Yarden are impressive, but add no clues to what is happening onstage. The rear of the stage  reveals the excellent band in all their splendor for the entire production. They are completely sealed in Plexiglas. Without a doubt the collaborators in this sonic, sci fi dreck had a vision. Stark, imponderable, puzzling, ponderous, downbeat, demented…. if that is what they aimed for, it is a boffo hit. For the rest of the audience, if you have patience and can accept the inanity of the piece, go inside and enjoy. All is predicated on your tolerance and temperament. Some people might pride themselves on understanding the work and “getting it”, others might realize it is one giant raspberry. A sold out hit since tickets went on sale…getting in to see it might be very tough, near impossible. But that might prove to be a godsend in disguise.    

The New York Theatre Workshop

79 East 4^th Street

www.nytw.org

Playing through January 20^th 2016