'Here Lies Love' where politics clashes with art

The musical "Here Lies Love" continues to stir fierce debate among lovers of Broadway musicals and political activists; between pro-Marcos and anti-Marcos factions; between harsh historical reality and glorified twisted history.

Since the musical debuted Off Broadway several years ago, there are those who absolutely hate the production and there are those who love the way the audience is immersed in the show and ultimately becomes part of the performance. 

The controversial musical, which features an all-Filipino cast, follows the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the wife of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for 20 years, amassing a fortune stolen from the Fililpino people and arrested and killed opposition leaders and took over businesses.

Yet, Filipino voters, awash in decades of misinformation and rewriting of history, elected the son, Bong Bong Marcos, as the nation's current President.

    FYI: Read more about the controversy surrounding 'Here Lies Love'

Does the musical glorify the Iron Butterfly? Or, does it make the audience realize their own transformation from being seduced by dancing with the former beauty queen; to becoming one with of the People Power  protesters who kicked the Marcos family out of the Philippines.

It is therefore not surprising that academia chimes in on the debate. If you're in the New York area and want to explore the implications of the musical that takes place during a dark chapter of the Philippines, you might be interested in the following two-day event.

The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU invites you to the launch of “Here Lies Love in Critical Contexts,” a public syllabus by Nerve V. Macaspac (Queens College) and Lara Saguisag (New York University). The syllabus compiles resources that contextualize and complicate the musical Here Lies Love, which premiered on Broadway in July 2023. 

The two-day program, held in commemoration of the 51st anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines, includes film screenings and teach-ins that invite audiences to engage with some of the texts and themes included in the syllabus.

Here Lies Love is hailed as groundbreaking for featuring Broadway’s first all-Filipino cast. While we recognize and celebrate the talent of Filipino and Filipino American artists on Broadway, the organizers of the seminars also invites careful consideration of Filipino presence and representation in the musical and, more broadly, in the performing arts.

The syllabus hopes to bring to light the tensions that constitute and are generated by the Broadway production of Here Lies Love. In what ways can Filipino performers and producers recalibrate and remix a musical that is conceptualized, choreographed, and directed by White creators? What happens when a production that omits or liberally reinterprets facts about the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda is supplemented by paratexts and community outreach efforts that seek to educate the public about Philippine history? How can projects that attempt to humanize Imelda account for how she shored up power through the dehumanization of tens of thousands of Filipinos? And what do we make of the responses and agencies of audience members, who come to the musical with varying degrees of knowledge about the Marcos regime?

Observed at the performances, some audience members giddily danced as the actors playing the Marcoses sang. At the same time, others stood still as if refusing to sway along. Some cheered when the words “Marcos wins!” flashed on the theater’s walls; later, others joined the performers in raising their hands to make the "L" sign for “Laban!” (Fight) to show their opposition.

“Remember, it’s a party!” This is one of the “party rules” for Here Lies Love’s dance floor ticket holders. The musical encourages the audience to dance and to lose themselves in the glamor of a nightclub setting.

There is no doubt that many are dazzled by its spectacular and innovative design. Yet even before the disco ball starts to turn, some are asking: How do we crash the parties of the powerful, the parties that come at the cost of people’s lives and freedoms?

“Here Lies Love in Critical Contexts” is a practice of paying attention to every beat and every false note, of hearing through distractions and distortions of tyrants. We hope this public syllabus strengthens our capacity and resolve to never again dance with dictators.

FYI: All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required.  Register via this Google Form.

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.

'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.

Documentary 'The Kingmker' debuts about the reemergence of Imelda Marcos and her delusions

REVIEW

By Ed Diokno

SPECIAL TO ASAM NEWS

The Philippines has been out of the consciousness of most Americans for awhile. Out of sight, out of mind.

The last time the Philippines made headlines in the United States was when nuns stopped tanks in their tracks during the bloodless People Power revolution, the last days of the dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

A new documentary by award-winning documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield brings Imelda Marcos -- she of the 3,000 pairs of shoes and one-half of the conjugal dicatorship -- back into the spotlight.

The Marcos family, their reemergence of a popular and politically powerful factor in Philippine politics is the subject Greenfield's film The Kingmaker.

"I miss the clout of being the First Lady," Imelda says as she wanders through her house full of mementos and portraits of her late husband and their time as the powerful despots plundering the country for their own wealth.

Imelda plays to the camera portraying herself as a misunderstood victim as she tries to rewrite history reimagining her and her husband's 20-year dictatorship as a golden age. "She's a very controlling figure," says Greenfield. She’ has this amazing ability to create these character moments." We see this in the film when she hands out pesos to school children, when she greets her adoring crowds or as she sits beneath a portrait of her husband explaining how she is misunderstood and her new role as the country's "mother."

Since her family's return to the Philippines after Marcos' death in Hawaii, they have reinserted themselves into the country's politics. The oldest daughter is governor of Marcos' home province Ilocos Norte and the only son, Bong Bong, as the heir apparent ran for vice president in 2016. The plan is to eventually put the Marcos family back in Malacanang Palace, the Philippines' White House.

Thankfully, the Marcos scion lost to current Vice President Leni Robredo but he is challenging the outcome. He has powerful friends in his quest that is making its way to the Philippines Supreme Court. 

The Marcos family, we learn in the documentary, helped finance Rolando Duterte's presidential campaign and in the Philippine custom of paying back debts, wants Bong Bong by his side. He replaced the Supreme Court Chief Justice who opposed Bong Bong's appeal with one of his puppets. The recount outcome, officially, remains uncompleted.

Which brings us back to the Marcos wealth. Where did they get all that money to live their lavish lifestyle? Government offices don't pay that well and they have no visible means of support. 

All the ill-gotten wealth the Marcoses accumulated when in power was never returned. When they were in power, Imelda would buy real estate all around the world on a whim and Picasso's hung in their living room.

Their wealth is what brought them to Lauren Greenfield's attention. There's a theme that runs through all of Greenfield's documentaries, The Wealth Generation and The Queen of Versailles. The accumulation of wealth, or the pursuit of wealth, wealth inequality corrupts our society and the Marcos family is a prime example of that corruption.

She refuses to apologize for the Marcos era. In fact, "it was the opposite," says Greenfield. In Imelda's interpretation of history, "those were the best days of the Philippines."

LAUREN GREENFIELD

It was when Greenfield was faced with these lies that she decided to show the other side of the story. "When I saw untruths,  I needed a way to tell the audience what was true," says Greenfield, the  

"Her story contradicted first-person testimonials," Greenfield says. The director and writer was able to accomplish this in The Kingmaker with interviews of some of the victims of the regime, during which  political opponents disappeared, tortured or killed.

With no narration, Greenfield allows the viewers to come to their own conclusion. The documentary shifts to the truth tellers, the women who were sexually molested and tortured and the poor villagers evicted from their island to make room for African animals imported by Imelda for their beauty. The contrast between Imelda's imagination and the truth was an effective emotional punch in the gut.

Imelda's true nature comes near the end of the documentary, when she tried to equate her new role as the nation's mother, "Its hard when you lose your money ... your mother," she says in a slip of the tongue. 

Greenfield hopes The Kingmaker is viewed as a cautionary tale. Indeed, One of the first things Marcos did when he declared martial law was to take control the media. In this way he began to warp people's perceptions of the truth, of their own history.

Sound familiar? Discrediting the Fourth Estate as fake news and taking spinning the news for one's own benefit cuts off the real information people need to make sound decisions. "An informed public," Greenfield says, "is the basis of democracy."

"The Kingmaker" makes its debut Dec. 13 in the San Francisco Bay Area in select theaters although it has already been released in other parts of the country. Showtime will begin airing it in January, 2020.

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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/