Michael C. Hall on starring in David Bowie’s Lazarus: “It felt like a celebration”

The death of legendary rock star and artist David Bowie hit the global creative community like a dagger, but perhaps few were as deeply affected as the cast of the off-Broadway production of the musical Lazarus.

For Michael C. Hall, it was even more impactful, as at the time of Bowie’s death he was playing the title role in what turned out to be one of Bowie’s last creative works.

Speaking to Vox at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (where he was promoting his new movie Christine), Hall discussed the effect Bowie’s death had on everyone involved in the production.

“Once he passed, it certainly informed our experience of doing the show; it informed the audience’s experience of watching it,” Hall said. “And it was as humbling an experience as I’ve ever had, to be this vital part of what became somewhat of an epitaph for him. I’m still sort of reeling from that last week and a half of performances that we did after he died.”

Hall and the rest of the Lazarus crew learned of Bowie’s passing on the day they were set to record the cast album, which continued as planned. Hall said it was “hard emotionally” when they returned to the stage the following night for a scheduled performance.

“It was hard to concentrate because you were being struck by the new resonances of so much of what we were performing,” Hall said. “It was hard to sort of recalibrate the molecules in the air. But moving forward, it felt like a celebration, and I think there’s a good chance that we’ll do it again somewhere.”

The critically lauded Lazarus, which closed January 19, was always slated as a limited run, due to a previously scheduled production taking over the same venue. So far, there has been no official announcement of a restaging of the production.