The Broadway Theatre Review: David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love

By Ross

When the disco ball rises up high signaling that the party has begun, Here Lies Love dances up strong and spectacularly, moving us, and all those souls on the dance floor of the Broadway Theatre, around and all the way back to the Philippines. It’s an impressively demanding beginning, welcomed with enthusiasm by the magnetic DJ Moses Villarama (off-Broadway’s Cambodian Rock Band), who is taking us all for a spin back to 1945 to investigate, and possibly try to understand the notoriously criminal Imelda Marcos, played to perfection by Arielle Jacobs (off-Broadway’s Between the Lines) and those people that shared the spotlight with her during those infamous years. It’s a complicated undertaking, this examination, as the woman, and her husband, the president-turned-dictator Ferdinand Marcos lived a life fueled by over two decades of corruption, violence, scandal, and human rights abuses, ending in a dramatic airlift out of the country in 1986.

“Why don’t you love me?” she eventually asks. And like the epic musical, Evita, Here Lies Love, created with a strong vision by the musicians David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, searches through her origin story for clues as to what made this woman, who once addressed the Filipino people with a similar refrain, the monster she soon became. A refrain title song that I can’t seem to get out of my head for days after seeing the immersive musical. As the opening number, “Here Lies Love“, sung strong in the center of this radically transformed theatre, rises up to the masses, we feel history becoming alive in front of us, unwrapping the terrible slice of Marcos’ violent reign to a strong beat. It’s an impressive beginning, one that shepherds the emotional core forward to the bitter ending.

As directed with force by Alex Timbers (Broadway’s Moulin Rouge!) and backed by music director J. Oconer Navarro’s (RTC’s Caroline, or Change) solid sound, the structured history lesson comes surprisingly alive, delivering its tale with clarity and vision. Imelda rises up before us, into something oozing with glamour and a warped idea of popularity, structured infectiously by manipulation and sly tactics. All to the seductive beats that ricochet around the space magnificently constructed by set designer David Korins (Broadway’s Beetlejuice).

The space miraculously swims and flows like turbulent water around a yacht bedazzled with a power-hungry insistence to pay attention and worship the madness of the Marcos regime. As the raised platforms rotate and ride the waves of history, Here Lies Love unpacks the problematic scenario with eye-popping delight, brought to life by the exceptional lighting design by Justin Townsend (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill), sound design by both M.L. Dogg (fringeNYC’s Go-Go Kitty, GO!) and Cody Spencer (off-Broadway Broadway Bounty Hunter), and the spectacularly well-defined projection design by Peter Migrini (Broadway’s SpongeBob Musical). The unveiling, especially for those not entirely in the know, is captivatingly telling, even when a bit vague or simplified for consumption, but, as I was told by another in the audience who has a closer connection to their country’s history, the show hits the gut hard and emotional, much like the night when Hillary lost (electorally), and that Orange Monster became President. And I totally get how that could be, especially with the present state of political affairs in the Phillippines.

Imelda Marcos, from the get-go, demands to be seen and heard, espousing her love for beauty early on in anthems rich in superficial romance and adoration, with additional music supplied by Tom Gandey and José Luis Pardo. She rises up from the cleverly orchestrated small-town beauty queen contest, with sumptuous costumes deliciously designed by producer/designer/creative consultant Clint Ramos (Broadway’s KPOP). After a brief affair with the future oppositional leader, Ninoy Aquino, magnetically portrayed with power by the compelling and handsome Conrad Ricamora (“Fire Island“), she moves on to bigger and seemingly better things. Like a certain Eva Peron did in Argentina, she made her way to a more powerful man on the rise, the young Senator Ferdinand Marcos, perfectly played with compromised charm by the very good Jose Llana (LCT’s The King and I) who connected more to thirst for power and attention. The rest, as you would say, is history, horrific and violent, but history, nonetheless.

Shimmering and sauntering with a certain over-the-top style through the mostly musical 90-minute production, Here Lies Love rarely falters in its sharply constructed honeymoon tour, giving pills for love and glamourous hairdos to the heavens, thanks to the spectacular work by hair designer Craig Franklin Miller (Apple TV+’s “Dickinson“) with strong makeup design by Suki Tsujimoto (Broadway’s Dancin’). The visuals live strong, depicting the rise and greed for the spotlight in Studio 54 fashion. The critical point of view of Marcos’ horrific legacy is projected with force all around us, just like the choreography by Annie-B Parson (“David Byrne’s American Utopia” film), giving energy and enlightenment of their politics and deceitful ways epically and emphatically.

The music and performances never let up, including the compelling work by Melody Butiu (Broadway’s Doctor Zhivago) as the wronged Estrella Cumpas, Jasmine Forsberg (Denver Center’s Wild Fire) as Maria Luisa/Imedla’s Inner Voice, and the quick magnetic performance near the end by co-producer Lea Salonga (Broadway’s Once on This Island) as Aurora. Sometimes the shifting seems sharp and blurred and the morals bent and complicated, but the controversy of the rose-tinted view of Imelda hangs distinctly like disco smoke over the crowd giving off an illusion of desire and opulence. It’s hard to know just how to take all the details in as this trippy treatment of this woman is laid out before us.

The crimes of Marcos’ power grab are huge, wide, immense, and disturbing, which aren’t as clear as could be in this short sharp disco-pop treatment of the dictator and his wife, but the residuals leave their mark, haunting you as you walk out of the pink-lit interior lobby of the Broadway Theatre. Here Lies Love, originally produced off-Broadway back in 2013 at the Public Theater, is a compelling warning, ultimately, one that scratches with a pop rhythm on the skin as we take in what happened recently in the Phillippines with Imelda’s son, Bongbong Marcos, being elected president regardless of the family’s history, as well as a certain multiple indicted former President that leads the pack in the GOP primaries. When will we open our eyes to what is standing before us? Or is the party too much fun to pay attention to the underlying details and possible threat of American fascism and dictatorship? Take note, cause no matter how much fun the Here Lies Love party rocks us all, the repercussions are immense and leave their disturbing mark on us all.