HERE LIES LOVE
Concept, Music and Lyrics by David Byrne
Music by Fatboy Slim
Additional Music by Tom Gandey & José Luis Pardo
Developed and Directed by Alex Timbers
Broadway Theatre
Official Website
Reviewed by David Spencer
Here Lies Love, which I have come to think of as Imeldavita, is a glossy overview of the life and reign of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos. There are indeed certain similarities between her story and that of Eva Peron (that is, as presented in the Webber-Rice musical Evita; actual history paints a far more complex and debatable portrait), in that she became the wife of a corrupt president and attained the iconography of one who has risen from poverty to great power.
The difference is that whereas Evita died young—while her legend and popularity were still in full bloom—in the Imelda story, it is her husband who became fatally ill. She was generally believed to have been the power broker behind the scenes at the point of his death, and suspicions and charges of corruption ensued.
As with Evita, Here Lies Love began as a concept album (released in 2010), and the subsequent productions—here in New York at the Public Theatre ten years ago, and currently at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway—present its stage adaptation.
The authorship is a typical pop-song committee mélange: conception and lyrics are by David Byrne, music is by Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and additional music is by Tom Gandey and J Pardo. There’s no credit for book per se, but “development” is credited to director Alex Timbers.
The Broadway remounting of the concept, if not a completely literal transposition of off-Broadway’s smaller-space production, retains the look and feel of its environmental staging, writ larger. You can choose to observe it from seats above, in a vastly repurposed and rebuilt mezzanine, or you can choose to be inside it, in what used to be the theatre’s orchestra section, which has been converted into a discotheque environment with multiple playing spaces, several of which move. In which case, you’re “on the dance floor,” so to speak, on your feet for all of the intermissionless 90 minutes, following the action and being shepherded hither and yon by some helpful guides in orange overalls, whose job it is to make sure you experience the show from all angles and stay out of the way of moving platforms.
Director Alex Timbers’ production is immersed in the context of a media circus: there are projections ranging from impressionistic pop art animations to news videos, and, as in a disco, all the music is pre-recorded (except of course for the vocals) and managed by a DJ high above it all, working an elaborate sound system.
Excellent cast, sensory-almost-overload, theatricality in spades, zip-nothing-nada in terms of thematic revelation or interesting characterization. Like Evita, Here Lies Love is a folk opera demonstration of how power manipulates media, with more bells and whistles for the new millennium. Given the times and our nation’s right wing maladies, maybe a little more disturbing than it means to be as the audience cheers on the pop music presentation of the abuses.
One likes to think that they, in the real world, being hip enough to attend a Broadway musical anyway, know better…