Bowie’s Starman, and songs, will not be turned into a musical

The Observer reported that a Deep Singh - nice name for someone who writes musicals - had been given the okay to turn Bowie songs, including Heroes, The Man Who Sold The World, The Jean Genie and Let's Dance, into a musical called.. Heroes: The Musical.

It was to tell the story of Major Tom and would have had its world premiere in March at the IndigO2 venue, inside the Millennium Dome. The director and choreographer of the show was to have been Matthew Gould, who has worked as resident director on West End shows including Les Miserables and Cats.

Then Forbes got in on the act and did a rough calculation and worked out that if they musical was successful and toured, Bowie could be in for around £1 million the year, here:

‘I think I’m right in saying that the songwriter (and Bowie did both his own music and lyrics) will get 3% of the ticket price, which at £50 and up in a 2,000 seater theatre is a £1 million a year and change for one city alone.’

Then it was all denied by Bowie’s PR machine:

‘Neither the David Bowie Organization, nor its co-publishers EMI Music and Chrysalis, has issued a license for this performance at the O2. There are no negotiations pending for a long running musical featuring the music of Mr. Bowie.’

Someone’s got a lot of free publicity.

Photo Elmar J. Lordemann