Imelda Marcos musical misses its San Francisco run

Ruthie Ann Miles as Imelda Marcos and Jose Llana as Ferndinand Marcos greet their followers played by the audience in the Broadway production of "Here Lies Love."

IT'S TOO BAD that the musical Here Lies Love, won't be coming to San Francisco disppointing thousands of Filipino/American residents of the Bay Area.

The Broadway hit musical by David Byrne about Imelda Marcos' rise from a provincial beauty queen to the Iron Butterfly had been launched on a national tour with its first -- and as it turns out, the only -- stop in Seattle.

It was originally slated to also have a run in San Francisco but production costs proved too expensive for the American Conservatory Theater.

The show was so popular in Seattle that its run was extended to June 18. The general public was disappointed that the orignal run was sold out, mainly to season ticket holders. The extension allowed non-subcribers, some who took part in the anti-Marcos movement, a chance to see the musical that played such a a strong influence in the development of the Asian/American movement. 

ACT announced in November that they had to cancel the planned Here Lies Love porduction. ACT artistic director Carey Perloff says 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 difficulty is staging the Tony-award winning musical is the interactive nature of the production in which, the audience, without the traditional seats, become part of the play. In a span less than two hours, the audience becomes the worshippers of the Marcoses, dancers in a discoteque, and protesters against the Marcos dictatorship. 

It would have required ACT to removes the rows of seats in one of its theaters and building a stage that thrusts into the what would have been the best and most expensive seats in the house.

It's hard to believe that ACT couldn't find the wherewithal to house the interactive musical,

Seattle Rep managed to find a way to revamp its theater and benefited from the gamble. Here Lies Love became the best-selling production in Seattle Repertory's history, said the theater company's spokeswoman Michelle Sanders Leyva.

Despite having an audience base 10 times larger than Seattle, San Francisco's ACT chose economy over art; safety over risk. 

That's unfortunate because the critically acclaimed musical most likely would have been sold out and been given an extended run in San Francisco, the center of the anti-Marcos movement in the U.S. and home to one of the  second largest concentration of Filipinos and Filipino/Americans outside of the Philippines. L.A. takes the No.1 honors. 

It is also timely because the Marcos family is attempting to regain power and influence in the Philippines. The dictator's son, Bong Bong, narrowly missed becoming vice president in the last election. He remains as a senator in the Congress of current strongman Rodrigo Duterete.

It's rare that a musical about an Asian subject that appeals to an Asian audience comes along. In San Francisco at least, we have to satisfy ourselves with experimental, low-budget off-Broadway productions. While the smaller plays may be earnest and their themes important -- I don't mean to imply the hard work and talent that goes into them is of lesser quality -- but, why should those productions be relegated to a side stage? 

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However worthy those artistic endeavors might be, they don't usually have the wide audience appeal of a proven Broadway hit. 

In the Bay Area, one of the most diverse regions in America with a strong link with Asia and the Pacific, outsiders shouldn't always be the ones seeking detours and shortcuts into the mainstream. When a production comes along that can bridge the divisions within our society, it should be seen by as many people as possible. That is the essence of art. ACT should have taken that leap with Here Lies Love. Diversity and inclusion should be a two-way street.

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Imelda Marcos' story is made for theater

When the Marcoses were in power in the Philippines, they banned the musical "Evita" because the parallels to the dual dictatorship was too obvious. It was perhaps inevitable that Imelda's rags-to-riches story - with her penchant for memorable quotes, infamous shoe collection, a reputed affair with actor George Hamilton and a love for the glamor and spotlight - end up on the Broadway stage.

"Here Lies Love" returned to Broadway July 9 for an open-ended run after garnering rave reviews last year.

Even with the uncertain future of George Takei's "Allegiance" and the too-short-of-a-run of the Bruce Lee musical, which starred Filipino-American martial artist/dancer Cole Horibe, Asian dancers and singers will have more than their normally limited number of opportunities to portray Asians in revivals of Miss Saigon and The King and I. Slowly, in little baby steps, producers are starting to cast Asians in roles that don't specifically call for an Asian actor.

Plans are afoot to put up productions of the Marcos musical in London and San Francisco. I can't wait when it comes to San Francisco, which was the center of anti-Marcos activities in the U.S. during the 21 year reign of the dictator.

Deep in the middle of the anti-Marcos movement in the U.S. was the Philippine News, where I honed my journalistic chops as a layout artist, proofreader, columnist, reporter and editor. Led by fiery editor and publisher Alex Esclamado, some of the stories that we printed about the despots'  regime seemed so fantastical that mainstream media couldn't believe it and as a result, the PhilNews suffered a credibility problem it could never overcome.

However, when the dictatorship fell, and the horrors of that rule were fully exposed, and western reporters began reporting on the Philippines dictatorship, especially by Phil Bronstein with the San Francisco Examiner -- only then did the U.S. media realize that things were even worst than what was reported by PhilNews. Reporting by US media, usually using Esclamdo's contacts and sources, eventually put pressure on the Marcoses.

Many of the people who walked in picket lines, wrote letters, made films, wrote scathing commentaries and risked their businesses, reputations and lives working against the dictator still live in the Bay Area. It will be interesting to see if they join the audience to sing along or dance with Imelda and Ferdinand in the highly  interactive production where the audience become part of the story. At various times during the show they are fellow nightclub dancers, Filipino voters and finally they become the masses that became the "People Power" that dethroned the dual dictators.

The production wanted to move into a mainstream theater but the physical requirements of the show, ie. no seats in the orchestra section, precluded any of the traditional venues. And that's a problem the show will have when it moves to London in October. Unfortunately, there are not many venues in SF that can accommodate the production. (How about the vacant Palace of Fine Arts? Imelda would love the irony of finally winding up in a palace again.)

The musical is NOT an ode to the dictatorship. It is NOT a history lesson. It is a musical that offers an unapologetic look back at an era in the Philippines that is still having repercussions on the political  scene. 

We may not have brought down the final curtain on the Marcos story. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos' son, Bong Bong, has been elected President of the Philippines in 2022 after extensive rewriting of history and the collective memory loss of voters, many who were born after the reign of the conjugal dictatorship.

Editor's Note: Having not seen the musical, I can't give a review, but here is a sampling of reviews from the early production.

Here's a review from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/06/18/here-lies-good-stuff/

And a review from the Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/review-here-lies-love-is-a-swirling-dynamic-first-ladys-biography-to-a-disco-beat/