Bowie 1984 AD

Disc • 27 October 1973

DAVID BOWIE is to star in a musical in London's West End next year. With Tony Ingrassia he is currently writing the script for the musical based on George's Orwell's book 1984 and David has already completed six songs, including 1984, which may be his next single.

On Saturday, Ingrassia told Disc, "We have not finally acquired the rights to the book yet, and it is still possible that we may to call it 1983 or something like that!" he joked.

And just before going to press, David's publicist, Cherry Vanilla, said: "I don't know how closely David will follow the script. It might be quite unrecognisable from the original but Bowie will definitely be playing the lead role of Winston."

Cherry, who starred in Andy Warhol's play Pork, may also have a part in the show, and other likely members of the cast are drag rock star Wayne County and Geoffrey MacCormack, who plays congas in Bowie's current band.

The musical is one of five TV and stage projects on which David is currently engaged, though details of the others, still in early stages, are not yet available.

David's current musical activities include a new band, the Astronettes, whom he is producing. The line-up consists of Geoffrey MacCormack and two coloured vocalists, who accompanied David during his NBC TV Marquee club date last week.

Rumours that Marianne Faithfull, who also appeared on the show, was joining David's management agency, MainMan, were denied by Cherry.