“...speak Chinese, French and Dutch?” *
As you may already know, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, has announced that David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s Lazarus will open in Amsterdam next year.
Here’s an edited excerpt in English from the interview with Albert Verlinde:
A beaming Albert Verlinde (56) greets me in his office in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. He has news. He has managed to bring a special production to the Netherlands: Lazarus, the musical which director Ivo van Hove created with David Bowie in 2015. ‘I'm so proud’, says Verlinde. ‘We've already started casting. It will have a Dutch cast, but the songs will stay in English.’
‘18 months ago, I invited Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld to an introductory dinner when all three of us were in New York. We haven't stopped talking since then. It took quite some doing to get the rights, which are managed by the major producer Robert Fox. He's nobility, you could say.’
The aim is for Lazarus to run at the DeLaMar for at least half a year. Van Hove is starting to reign supreme on the lively Leidseplein square, with his own repertory company Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Stadsschouwburg and his direction of the musical on the other side of the Marnixstraat.
Verlinde has high expectations for the production. ‘David Bowie's legacy appeals to a wide audience. Just look how many people came to see the Bowie exhibition in the Groninger Museum (200,700). When you add in Ivo, who put on successful productions of Lazarus in New York and London, I think: this is the one.’
So, to recap: Ivo van Hove-directed Dutch language version of Lazarus (with songs in the original English), to run at the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam for at least six months from September, 2018. More details as we get them.
* Just Dutch.
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