VIDEO PROFILE: LAZARUS' David Bowie Singing Brel, Brecht/Weill and Playing THE ELEPHANT MAN

Though the late David Bowie was only sporadically associated with what we traditionally regard as theatre, he was an artist who brought theatricality and showmanship to all his creative endeavors, writing songs with dramatic textures and using his androgynous appearance as a blank canvas on which to paint personas like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Thin White Duke.

As reported on BroadwayWorld, his passing from cancer comes when his abstract Off-Broadway musical, Lazarus, continues to pack in audiences at New York Theatre Workshop in a run set to finish on January 20th.

After engagements in Chicago and Denver, September of 1980, Bowie stepped into the title role of John Merrick in the original Broadway production of Bernard Pomerance's THE ELEPHANT MAN. His only traditional stage acting appearance, his fifteen-week run at the Booth Theatre was well-received.

Scenes of his performance are included with this television interview, where he discusses his theatre debut with Tim Rice.

The stage of David Bowie's 1987 open-air concert in West Berlin was adjacent to the Berlin Wall and he could hear thousands of East Germans on the other side singing along. Playing before a unified Berlin audience in 2002, he performs Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's "Alabama Song."

David Bowie as a great admirer of the work of French songwriter Jacques Brel. Sadly, Brel did not return the admiration after Bowie publicly declared himself to be gay in a 1972. Still, the rising star continued to perform the Frenchman's music, such as Mort Shuman's translation of "Amsterdam."

David Bowie's new musical LAZARUS officially opened December 7, 2015 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E. 4th Street New York, NY 10003).

The cast of LAZARUS includes Golden Globe winner and six-time Emmy nominee Michael C. Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, "Dexter") as Thomas Newton, Tony Award nominee Cristin Milioti (Once) as Elly, and Michael Esper(The Last Ship) as Valentine, as well as Krystina Alabado (American Idiot),Sophia Anne Caruso (The Nether),Nicholas Christopher (Whorl Inside A Loop), Lynn Craig (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Bobby Moreno(Year of the Rooster), Krista Pioppi (Spring Awakening Nat'l Tour), Charlie Pollock (The Wild Party), and Brynn Williams (Bye Bye Birdie).

Following his revelatory production of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, the internationally acclaimed director Ivo van Hove returns to New York Theatre Workshop with LAZARUS. Mr. Walsh makes his return to NYTW after the successful run of Once. LAZARUS features songs specially composed by Mr. Bowie for this production as well as new arrangements of previously recorded songs.