A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Here Lies Love’

A fantastic all-Filipino cast cannot hide the simple fact that Here Lies Love, now having its West Coast premiere at Center Theatre Group, is a shallow, poorly written musical with relentless static disco tunes. It is also absolutely confused in whether they want to glorify their subject Imelda Marcos or warn about the dangers of fascism.

Here Lies Love is a groundbreaking musical about former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her family’s rise to power and subsequent fall at the hands of the Philippine People Power Revolution. Featuring music by Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner David Byrne and Grammy Award winner Fatboy Slim, and direction by Center Theatre Group Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director Snehal Desai, comes an all-new production (the first since appearing on Broadway in 2023) in a transformative experience combining disco beats and adrenaline-fueled choreography. The show goes beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes to explore true questions of authoritarian rule and responsibility. It is a story fueled by greed, power, and disco that feels as timely today as ever.

Reviewing this production might have been one of the most challenging tasks for me as I have been made aware of this musical since its inception back in 2013 and its journey through off-Broadway to its short-lived four month Broadway run along with the many, many controversies and issues it is surrounded with. My theatre critic friend Amanda Andrei wrote an excellent critique of it along with her Filipino experience watching it in this in-depth American Theatre article that I encourage you all to most definitely read. But before we get started, let’s do a very quick primer for those who are unfamiliar with the musical’s main character Imelda Marcos or the Marcos regime in the Philippines that lasted from 1965 to 1986.

Starting in 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was elected the president of the Philippines and while things started off decent enough, he placed the entire country under martial in 1972 shortly before the end of his second term. This martial law lasted for nine years and during this period, the constitution was revised and media outlets were silenced. Marcos also oversaw a violent crackdown against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens, which many human rights organizations have speculated that over three thousand lives were lost.

But this was not a solo effort as his wife Imelda Marcos was herself a formidable political figure. Despite being known for her excesses (in a term she coined herself as “imeldific”), she was a crucial and knowing player in her husband’s domestic and foreign policies. For more research, Nerve V. Macaspac and Lara Saguisag came up with a tremendous syllabus to give the show and all the historical events they mention a lot more context.

So why on Cthulu would you write a musical about Imelda Marcos as the main lead? What possible reasons or benefits would there be for such a thing? Such is the extremely problematic dilemma that is also compounded with the fact that David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, two white male artists, are the creators behind this. But controversies of the individual aside, I came to the opening night with the challenge that I would review this objectively as a catchy musical first and foremost. Perhaps I could be swayed by the groovy tunes or the exhilarating choreography by William Carlos Angulo but alas, no. This was a frantic montage of moments throughout Imelda’s life covered with relentless, static, and forgettable disco-theme songs that jumped from one moment to the next.

This musical tries to have a harsh look at Imelda Marcos but considering she was obsessed with disco and this musical is nothing but disco, it is hard to see that. They did sprinkle in several moments that we as the audience were inclined to feel sad for Imelda’s situation but it felt limp and half-baked at best.

With the repeated chorus lines of “Rise Up” and the director Snehal Desai‘s opening comments that the musical is a timely reminder of our collective need to fight against fascism, Here Lies Love has a massive conflict in whether they want to glorify Imelda Marcos or condemn her. You can literally feel the Filipino community inputs to try to fix this musical up with complexity and nuance as much as possible but in the end, the musical presents their main character without much satire or irony.

If this was created in the vein of Charlie Chaplin‘s The Great Dictator, perhaps there is potential but as it is, one has an extremely unsympathetic main character to which Reanne Acasio tries her very best to imbue some humanity into. As it is, she is unsuccessful but not as a slight at the actor’s talent but rather the script. Such can be said for all the actors who act and sing their hearts out so if there’s anything worthwhile to get from this musical is the sheer immense amount of Filipino talent that needs to be used for far better material.

There are a few wonderful standouts in terms of acting moments that inspires a different path this musical should have taken in terms of tone and character focus and one of them is Joshua Dela Cruz as Ninoy Aquino who starts off in a terrific boy band number oozing with charm and charisma. As we see his character ages and becomes the outspoken and compassionate politician that ultimately meets his tragic martyr end, I could not help but wonder why the musical is not about HIM instead. This is accompanied by a powerful performance by Joan Almedilla as Ninoy’s mother, Aurora Aquino, that only strengthens the bravery and resilience of her son and also amplifies the burning question of who the true main focus should have been.

The other standout is Aura Mayari as Imeldific, an imaginary drag personification of Imelda Marcos’ better side of humanity. This role was completely rewritten from the musical’s earlier versions as an inconsequential DJ to now a commentator that tries hard to show us Imelda’s humanity but fails completely. That being said, Aura has one incredible acting moment near the end of the musical where the glitzy lights are turned off and the harsh overhead lights reveal the pain and hurt inside. These moments were far and few in between as the musical was more concerned with pumping out disco beats than actual heart beats.

I need to add that while watching this performance, there was an elderly Filipina lady sitting on my right side who was shaking with rage throughout the whole night. And after the show, I overheard conversations from other Filipinos wistfully recollecting how wonderful Ferdinand Marcos was to his people and country. After all, their son Bongbong is currently the president and a large part of it was made possible by the massive historical revisions their family and government has successfully implemented over the many decade.

With all of this, I could not help but think that we are living in the same scenario right now here in the United States except our story of fascism didn’t come suddenly but slowly manifested into shape by the willing participants of both our Democratic and Republican parties. I know many theatre companies will put up productions about fighting against fascism and will use historical events or storylines that paint a simple black and white picture but in reality, the truth of how one’s country succumbs to fascism is far more complex and ugly.

Strictly as a musical, I can’t recommend it to any musical or disco lovers due to how stagnant it all was, despite this production’s best attempts to liven it up with frenetic choreography and lighting. But on the ethical ground of arts and politics, I can’t recommend it to anyone either. I suppose there is some victory here as this production was the first all-Filipino cast assembled for a Broadway show and despite the large number of ANHPI creatives involved in the process, this musical was still ultimately created by two white men that told a story confused in its intention.

Here Lies Love is performing at the Mark Taper Forum through April 5th. 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. Tue-Thurs, 7:30 p.m.; Fri, 8 p.m.; Sat, 2 and 8 p.m., Sun, 1 and 7 p.m. You can get tickets at https://www.centertheatregroup.org/shows-tickets. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.