What would a David Bowie jukebox musical look like? Casual fans might imagine something like the new Cher musical, with flashy set pieces dedicated to the many ch-ch-ch-ch-changes in the late icon's career. Serious fans, though, know that the perfect Bowie musical already exists: Lazarus, one of the artist's last projects.

It's not perfect because it's a great musical. When it premiered in late 2015, it earned mixed reviews, which is very understandable. The plot is elliptical, there's too much time spent on uninvolving characters, and the mood is dark and tragic with so little levity in Enda Walsh's script that a couple of weak jokes evoke gasps of almost desperate laughter. There's almost none of the liberating joy Bowie brought to many of his performances, and the music is cast strongly in the mold of his final album Blackstar, with classics like "Changes" and "Heroes" pulled down into its dark, jazzy register.

A real crowd-pleaser, eh? No, not so much...and yet, the musical is showing signs of persistence, with several productions mounted and upcoming around the world. An elegant film of the original New York Theatre Workshop production, directed by Ivo Van Hove, is streaming for three ticketed windows this weekend, "in remembrance of David Bowie on his birthday and to mark the fifth anniversary of his untimely death."

There are no plans for the video to be available on demand, so Bowie fans are well advised to take this opportunity, even if it means pouring a stiff drink of the water that star Michael C. Hall constantly chugs onstage as a prop for gin — or, perhaps, a drop of the stronger stuff.

As the press release notes, Lazarus is truly "David Bowie's final musical creation." Even more than the album Blackstar and its remarkable music videos, Lazarus is a capstone to Bowie's career; he made his final public appearance at a performance of the show. If it's dark and weird, well, it's the product of a wonderfully weird artist who knew he was dying as he pieced it together with Walsh, van Hove, and music director Henry Hey.

As I wrote in a 2016 review of the published script:

What is Lazarus? Even for Bowie fans, that takes a little explaining.

It's a stage musical written by David Bowie and Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The book (that is, everything but the music) is by Walsh, and Bowie contributed new songs as well as some of his classics: "Heroes," "Changes," "The Man Who Sold the World," "Life on Mars?" and more.

It picks up the story of Thomas Newton, a character played by Bowie in the cult-classic 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. That movie, directed by British auteur Nicolas Roeg, was based on a 1963 novel by American author Walter Tevis.

In the film, Newton is a humanoid alien from another planet. His vast technological knowledge allows him to become a wealthy industry mogul, but he longs to return to his home planet -- despite a passionate and poignant love affair with a (literally) down-to-earth woman named Mary-Lou (Candy Clark).

Thomas Newton became one of Bowie's iconic characters: an alien among us, a man of great power (and great beauty) who's idolized on Earth but forever longing to return to the stars.

In Lazarus, we find the ageless Newton (played on stage by Dexter's Michael C. Hall) still trapped on Earth all these decades later. He's assisted by Elly, whose attraction to the mysterious Newton arouses the ire of her husband Zach. Meanwhile, Newton is threatened by a shady character named Valentine — but given hope by a young girl who appears to him and promises to bring the forlorn alien "back to the stars."

Throughout the two-hour, one-act show, the characters sing Bowie songs in a way that speaks to their situations and emotional states. The effect is something akin to that of the movie Across the Universe, which repurposed and rearranged Beatles songs to tell a story inspired by the characters and events of those songs. A good example of this is the song "Changes," which becomes a plaintive lament sung by Elly as her marriage collapses.

While the script's dynamics come alive in the committed performances captured on film (notably by Caruso, who went on to be a breakout Broadway star when cast as Lydia in Beetlejuice), the film also reflects the script's tedious fixation on Valentine, with the connection between his violent character and a cowering Thomas Newton less than successfully elucidated.

There's also an unmistakably creepy cast to Newton's relationship with his dream girl, who represents his lost daughter but also takes the stage in a dress and blue wig matching the alien's lost love Mary-Lou. When the two duet on "Heroes," with the girl tsk-tsking Newton's sung admission that he drinks all the time, it comes off as a sort of art-rock Annie, and not in a good way.

Nonetheless, the show has some stunning moments, especially Caruso's "Life On Mars?" and the opening "Lazarus," with choreographer Annie-B Parson (who went on to choreograph David Byrne's acclaimed American Utopia) having Hall throw himself into the window separating the actors and the band. Thomas Newton seems to wish he could escape into music...but only Bowie could do that. His alien alter ego, who fascinated the artist until the end, remained stuck on earth with his head in the stars. We fans can relate.

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