David Bowie musical 'Lazarus' to stream in honour of late singer’s birthday

The artist co-wrote the piece while battling cancer

Michael C Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso perform in the David Bowie created stage show 'Lazarus' during a press preview in London on November 3, 2016. AFP 

David Bowie fans are in for a bittersweet treat this weekend.

To mark what would have been the late singer's 74 birthday on January 8, the musical Lazarus, will be streamed from then until January 10.

The production was filmed during its 2016 sold out run at London's King's Cross Theatre and will stream on the website dice.fm.

Screening times will be staggered with evening and matinee times available each day. Tickets start at £16 ($22) and entitle you to a single screening.

The musical is based on Walter Tevis's 1963 sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell to Earth and acts as a sequel to the 1976 film adaption of the same name, which starred Bowie. Lazarus was written by singer and Irish playwright Enda Walsh a year before Bowie's death in 2016.

Premiering off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2015, the intergalactic plot is centres on Thomas Jerome Newton (Michael C Hall, Dexter), a troubled alien desperate to return to his planet.

Lazarus features 18 Bowie songs spanning about 50 years.

They range from the title track, taken from his 25th and final Bowie album Blackstar (2016) to Changes and The Man who Sold the World, released in 1971 and 1970, respectively.

In an interview published today in The Guardian, producer Robert Fox said the filmed version of the show was initially never meant for release.

"It was for archive, but we did it with seven or eight cameras," he said.

"When we saw the finished article it turned out to be very powerful, quite a different experience. Rather than just bang it out at the time, I talked with David’s management and we felt the right thing to do would be to wait until five years had passed since his death. With the wave of lockdown streaming – something David would have been up for and interested in – it felt like the right time."

Fox described Bowie was an active collaborator in the project, despite his ailing health caused by liver cancer.

"David got ill and he wanted it on. He said I’ve got to have this on while I’m still alive. He was heavily involved throughout."

More information on tickets and streaming times is on dice.fm