David Bowie writes new songs for New York stage show

David Bowie was named best British male at the Brit Awards last year

Rock legend David Bowie is co-writing a stage show inspired by The Man Who Fell to Earth, the New York Theatre Workshop has announced.

The production, Lazarus, will feature new songs specially composed by Bowie as well as new arrangements of his old songs.

The star is working on the project with Irish playwright Enda Walsh, who won a Tony Award for the musical Once.

Lazarus is due to premiere in New York in the winter this year.

The show is inspired by the 1963 novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth, by Walter Tevis, and centres on the character of Thomas Newton, played by Bowie in the 1976 screen adaptation directed by Nicolas Roeg.

It will be directed by the Belgian Ivo van Hove, whose recent London productions include Antigone, with Juliet Binoche, and the sell-out A View From the Bridge, starring Mark Strong.

Bowie is not expected to feature in the cast.

James C Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, said the show had been in secret development for some years.

He told the New York Times: "It's going to be a play with characters and songs - I'm calling it music theatre, but I don't really know what it's going to be like. I just have incredible trust in their creative vision."

Nicola said the show would not retell the story of the book and film, but would feature some of the same characters.

Bowie surprised his fans in 2013 when he suddenly released a new single on his 66th birthday - followed by a new album - after a 10-year hiatus.

He was named best British male at the Brit Awards in 2014.