‘Here Lies Love’ Musical Coming to Broadway

‘Here Lies Love’ Musical Coming to Broadway

Here Lies Love, the disco pop stage musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, based on the life of Imelda Marcos, will be opening on Broadway this summer.

Preview performances will begin June 17 at the Broadway Theatre, with the official opening night set for July 20.

The musical chronicles the life of Imelda Marcos until the People Power Revolution in 1986. The show’s title comes from Imelda’s self-proposed epitaph. According to The Guardian, some of the song lyrics were lifted directly from speeches, interviews, recordings from the time and even Marcos’s high school yearbook. One song is taken verbatim from a speech of Ninoy Aquino about President Marcos building arts centers while another song is based on quotes from an oral history of the People Power revolution that Byrne found.

The show was conceived by Byrne, lead singer of the Talking Heads, and features a score by Byrne and Fatboy Slim with additional music by Tom Gandey and J Pardo. The Broadway production will be directed by Alex Timbers and choreographed by Annie-B Parson. The rest of the creative team will include David Korins (set design), Clint Ramos (costumes), Justin Townsend (lighting), M.L. Dogg and Cody Spencer (sound), and Peter Nigrini (projections).

According to Variety, Here Lies Love is being produced on Broadway by Hal Luftig, Patrick Catullo, Diana DiMenna for Plate Spinner Productions, and Clint Ramos and Jose Antonio Vargas. Ramos and Vargas are now billed as the first-ever Filipino lead producers on Broadway. There are also four Filipino co-producers: Miranda Gohh, Celia Kaleialoha Kenney, Rob Laqui and Giselle “G” Töngi. Filipino creative team members include music director J. Oconer Navarro, costume designer Clint Ramos, casting director Gail Quintos , assistant director Billy Bustamante, assistant stage manager Sheryl Polancos and aforementioned producer Töngi also serving as cultural and community liaison.

Here Lies Love began in 2010 as a concept album with contributing vocalists like Sia, Tori Amos, Florence Welch, Natalie Merchant, Steve Earle, and more. The show then made its world premiere at The Public Theater in 2013 and then ran again in 2014-2015, debuted at London’s National Theatre in 2014, and opened at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2017.

The original off-Broadway run featured Ruthie Ann Miles as Imelda, Jose Llana as Ferdinand Marcos, Conrad Ricamora as Ninoy Aquino, Melody Butiu as Estrella Cumpas, and Kelvin Moon Loh as DJ. The London run featured Natalie Mendoza as Imelda, Mark Bautista as Marcos, Dean John-Wilson as Ninoy, Gia Macuja Atchison as Estrella, and Mark Sarreal as DJ. The Seattle production featured Jaygee Macapugay as Imelda and Tobias Christian Wong as DJ and saw Bautista, Ricamora, and Butiu reprise their roles as Marcos, Ninoy, and Estrella respectively.

Visit the show’s website for more details and updates.