'Here Lies Love' brings Imelda Marcos to Broadway but not without controversy

In the beginning of 'Here Lies Love,' Imelda  (Jaygee Macupugay),  dancing in the
disco sequence, captures the adoration of the audience.

One of the most innovative and exciting musicals featuring the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos is making its long awaited Broadway debut after it was first produced off-Broadway a decade ago. 

Here Lies Love, a musical featuring a score by Oscar and Grammy winner David Byrne with music by Byrne and Grammy winner Fatboy Slim, will come to Broadway this summer and with it, a simmering debate about appropriation and a concern that it would trivialize a dark era of the Philippines.

The musical centers on the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, who was known for her lavish lifestyle amid civil unrest in the country.

To tell the story, the iconic Broadway Theatre will be reconfigured from a traditional proscenium stage into a “dance club environment,” which will allow audience members to become part of the production, interacting with the actors: disco dancers at times, fawning fans and protestors at other points of the story.

The show has had rave reviews everywhere it was presented starting with its world premiere Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2013, followed by a return engagement there from 2014 to 2015, a run at London’s Royal National Theatre in 2014 and a run at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2017.

Preview performances will begin June 17, with the show’s official opening night set for July 20.

Clint Ramos, a Filipino American Tony winner will serve as designer and a creative director. He'll be joined by immigration activist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jose Antonio Vargas as the first-ever Filipino lead producers on Broadway.

Although a cast hasn't been announced yet, all the principle roles are Filipino and will be cast accordingly, assure the producers.

“Filipinos are among the largest immigrant groups in America –– and also among the most invisible culturally, despite the two nations’ shared colonial histories," said Vargas, himself an outspoken undocumented immigrant who founded Define American, an agency promoting immigration reform 

"While the Asian diaspora can no longer be denied in American popular culture, Filipinas and Filipinos remain woefully outside the spotlight. I’m thrilled to help break barriers on what has historically been an exclusive stage: Broadway.”

Some of the actors who took part in the early productions of Here Lies Love, have moved on in their careers on Broadway and in television, including Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I), Jaygee Macapugay (School of Rock), Jose Llana (King and I) and Conrad  Ricamora (How to Get Away With Murder).

Much of the team that has been involved with the show in prior productions will return, including Tony-winning director Alex Timbers and choreographer Annie-B Parson.

The announcement notes that the show has four Filipino co-producers — Miranda Gohh, Celia Kaleialoha Kenney, Rob Laqui and Giselle “G” Töngi — while 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.

Since this article was first published in January 2023, more producers have joined the production, including: Jo Koy, Lea Salonga, Jose Antonio Vargas, Apl de Ap and H.E.R, also known as Gabrielle Sarmiento Wilson. 

One of the reasons it took so long for the musical to move from off-Broadway to Broadway is the production logistics. 

The announcement for this production says that “will transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors. A wide variety of standing and seating options will be available throughout the theater’s reconstructed space, with more details to be announced soon.”

It was the difficulty in finding and funding a venue with those production requirements  is why the musical didn't find its way to California, where a majority of Filipino Americans live and was the center for the anti-Marcos movement in the US and would have almost guaranteed a sold-out audience.

In 201i6, American Conservatory Theater artistic director Carey Perloff said they've been working for two years to bring the piece to San Francisco but "Ultimately the logistics and cost proved insurmountable," he said in a press release.

The actors interact with the audience, who become part of the performance and by the end come
to realization  how easy to fall prey to manipulation.

Since the announcement of the Broadway premiere, some Filipinos have voiced concern than the production would glamorize Imelda, also known as the Iron Butterfly." Critics worry that the regime of the brutal Marcos dictatorship, one that   stole billlions of dollars from the Filipino people, imprisoned, tortured and killed over 30,000 who would question the legitimacy of the dictatorship.

One thing the musical is not: It is not a celebration of the Marcos dictatorship. As the audience becomes part of the performance. Like the people of the Philippines, they are seduced by the glamor of Imelda and her husband, only to become the victims of oppression and greed. The audience  transforms from celebrating disco-dancers to Marcos worshippers to angry People Power protestors. 

Since Here Lies Love was first presented in 2013, the Marcos son, Bong Bong has become the Philippines President. The reviewer of the Seattle production makes the musical relevant to our present times in the Philippines and the US: "It also reminds us, right up to the meaningful folk ballad near the end, how dangerous political celebrity, fake populism and ostentatious greed can be for a nation, and how captivating."

It is true that Filipinos need to tell their own stories, but  without David Byrne and Fatboy Slim attracting the financial support, it is doubtful that the production would ever be staged. I seriously doubt that someone with the reputation of Vargas would allow the show to trivialize a dark chapter of Philippine history. 

What Here Lies Love does opens the door for producers and audiences to seek out more information about a period in Philippine history that has been sanitized or recast as a time of benevolence and peace.The rewriting of Philippine history was so effective that Marcos' son, Bongbong, was elected President last year.  

For non-Filipinos, the show raises awareness of the US foreign policty that that propped up authoritarian governments, not only in the Philippines but around the world. The might even make them see the consequences of an unquestioning cult-like worship of so-called populist leaders, a worldwide trend best exemplified by Donald Trump's anti-democracy administration.

Art in its various mediums can be contemplative, cause one to question the status quo, spark the imagination, release the restraints of society, transcend boundaries or record historical events. It can also do all of that and more, no matter who creates it.

Nothing is stopping a Filipino composer from creating a more "authentic" musical about the Marcoses. I hope it gets rave reviews.

Yes, a Filipino song writer could have composed the songs or written the production, but the fact is, Here Lies Love is largely a creation of Byrne and Slim. As an artistic expression, it should be judged, experienced and enjoyed -- or not enjoyed -- on its own terms.

“Exciting lessons are often learned through uniquely surprising works of art," said Filipino American producer Ramos, who first became involved in working on the project in 2006. "And nothing is more surprising than the way Here Lies Love vibrantly and creatively sheds light on a crucial part of Philippine history.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.