50 Favourite Musicals: 36: HERE LIES LOVE (2013) (David Byrne, Fatboy Slim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life: 

First performed: 2013, Public Theater, NY

First seen by me: 2014, Dorfman, London

Productions seen: one

Score: David Byrne, Fatboy Slim
Book: David Byrne

Plot:  Inside the Club Millennium disco, we see the rise and fall of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos 

Five memorable numbers: HERE LIES LOVE, WHEN SHE PASSED BY, CHILD OF THE PHILIPPINES, WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME, PLEASE DON'T

From one club-set musical to another, from Pet Shop Boys to David Byrne and Fatboy Slim.  However HERE LIES LOVE trumps CLOSER TO HEAVEN with it's focused story-telling and concept.  The spark for composer David Byrne's vision was when he heard that the notorious Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos had been a disco dolly, visiting discos like Studio 54 and installing her own club on the top floor of the presidential palace in Manila while having a glitter-ball installed in her NY apartment.  Of course there are comparisons with the other first lady musical EVITA but they show how sometimes history has a way of repeating - it's basis in a concept album, the vengeful leading character and in the title song it has her sugar-coating her actions as in DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA.  The odd thing is that my criticism of CLOSER TO HEAVEN - facile book, paper-thin characters - could be levelled at HERE LIES LOVE with it's almost totally sung-through score but here it really doesn't impinge on your enjoyment as Byrne isn't asking you to engage in that way with his characters.  However the success of the show is that it changes your idea of Imelda Marcos... without a single reference to her shoe collection, her drive and ambition to be someone at the expense of others may not make her likeable but it does make her understandable - and a great musical bitch!  Alex Timbers' production provided an all-encompassing world within the club setting utilizing sound, lighting and design - the idea to present it as a mostly promenade production with the standing audience marshalled by the cast around different podiums worked excellently as a lot of the numbers have Imelda, Ferdinand Marcos or their nemesis Ninoy Aquino making speeches or justifying their actions to their supporters - and all to an excellent driving dance beat.   It's a shame that HERE LIES LOVE - a genuine ground breaker in advancing the musical form - looks like it might be overlooked in the rush to over-praise HAMILTON as the way forward.

This extended trailer for the Public's production - which won 10 off-Broadway awards - gives you a taste of the show's kinetic, immersive excitement:

The 7 Shows of Xmas 3: HERE LIES LOVE

Before I saw this, a work colleague asked me what I was seeing.  I replied "A disco musical about Imelda Marcos written by Fatboy Slim and David Byrne".  We both then burst out laughing as it sounded like I was just saying random words out loud!

It did indeed sound a mind-twanging concept, but it was one of the shows I was most looking forward to - as well as seeing what had happened to the National's Cottesloe auditorium now it has been redesigned and rechristened the Dorfman.

The Theatre has found space to fit in a new staircase, bar, cloakroom and loos, although there was still no room to swing a cat as the show was a sell-out as is the rest of it's run.  The auditorium doesn't look terribly different but it was exciting to see it transformed into a club setting, the lighting cues becoming more and more urgent the closer we got to start time while the audience who had standing tickets nervously bounced from one foot to the other to the banging electro tunes.

So the set-up: David Byrne had been intrigued when he read that Imelda Marcos was a disco fan and had visited Studio 54 when in New York and had even had a floor in her NY Townhouse equipped with a disco-ball.  Collaborating with Fatboy Slim, they have used this as a springboard to explore her and husband Ferdinand's rise and fall in the Philippines.  Together they have crafted a fascinating piece of musical theatre quite unlike anything else thanks to the imagination of director Alex Timbers.

Imelda's story is told using an excellent score, projections, lighting and a shape-shifting set of platforms that move around the auditorium floor.  Bizarrely, apart from the music and staging, Imelda's trajectory follows that of Eva Peron's in EVITA - poor girl makes good in the big city then meets politician with an eye on the prize, she rises to become the President's wife and, while inspiring great love among voters, is adept at turning a blind eye to the violent cracking down on any dissent.

Unlike the sexist approach to EVITA however, here at least there is an attempt at understanding the hunger that drove Imelda to strive for more as well as view her with sympathy in relation to her marriage to Ferdinand, who seemed to view it more like a business take-over.  One can then understand her anger when the Western actress Ferdinand was keeping as a mistress went public with covert tapes of their lovemaking when he dumped her.

With Ferdinand's health in decline, Imelda seized her opportunity to woo world leaders to do business with the Philippines and to also take a bigger grasp of the political reins.

The interesting facet to her story was that the Marcos' opponent Ninoy Aquino had been Imelda's boyfriend when she first arrived in Manilla, allegedly dumping her because she was too tall.  This gives the politics an intriguing soap opera element.  My knowledge of Imelda Marcos was minimal so it was all an education to me!

For such a far-reaching subject, there are only four main characters in the show: Imelda, Ferdinand, Ninoy and Estrella, Imelda's maid who was her only friend in a loveless home.  She later ran foul of Imelda when she spoke to a reporter of her former friend's humble beginnings which ran counter to the official Marcos version - she was kept under house arrest for her pains.

The score gets darker as the Marcos grip on the people gets tighter until Ninoy Aquino is assassinated on the airport tarmac minutes after arriving back from exile in America.  We then leap three years to the Peace Revolution which brought down the Marcos regime in only four days.  This is done simply but very effectively by having the theatrics stop and with just the house lights on, a trio from the ensemble sing the song GOD DRAWS STRAIGHT.  This ends the show but you can't keep a bad girl down and Imelda reprises HERE LIES LOVE, a fantastic show song which lodges itself in your memory as soon as you hear it.  The title comes from an interview when Imelda was asked what she wanted inscribed on her tombstone.

The production was an astonishing combination of theatrical storytelling: music, choreography, lighting and performance melding together to make an unforgettable experience.  David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's score pulses and blares with energy but the attention never slips when the pace or tone gets slower or darker. 

Natalie Mendoza was electric as Imelda, effortlessly moving from ingenue to diva with an unstoppable energy that could power the whole of the Philippines.  If the supporting cast don't have quite the same opportunity to shine, it doesn't stop them making impressions: Mark Bautista as a slick Ferdinand, Dean John-Wilson as an impassioned Aquino and Gia Macuja Atchison as the increasingly invisible Estrella.

The ensemble worked every minute of the show and Frances Mayli McCann and Li-Tong Hsu caught the attention in their solos as the Mistress and Aquino's mother respectively.

It would be great if the show could come back in some way as it is sold out until it closes in early January.  More people should have the opportunity to experience this remarkable show.