Giving it his all: Llana describes his onstage portrayal of the late Marcos Sr as ‘the great seduction’. — The Straits Times/ANN
The disco ball spun in the air as 1980s music blared from inside Broadway Theatre, now transformed into the likeness of New York City nightclub Studio 54, where Imelda Marcos, the Philippines’ flamboyant former first lady, once partied the night away.
Her younger face was flashed on the screens hanging around the hall. A DJ appeared onstage and told the audience that it was time to dance.
This is Here Lies Love, the immersive discotheque spectacle brought to life by music icons David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. The musical tells the story of the rise and fall of Imelda and her late husband, former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr, and of their conjugal dictatorship in the Philippines that was toppled in a bloodless revolution in 1986.
Dramaturgs describe it as a Broadway show unlike any other – and it is being staged just as another Marcos, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, rules as president in Manila.
For Filipino-American Lori Roden, a 53-year-old housewife whose daughter is a budding actress, this makes it the perfect time to restage the musical. It first premiered off-Broadway at The Public in 2013.
“One of the main points of bringing this to Broadway is to show you how democracy is in peril all around the world,” said Roden, who has already watched the show twice.
“Look at politics in the US, and you see how Americans were swept up by this pop culture icon with (former) president (Donald) Trump. It’s the same thing that happened in the Philippines.”
Here Lies Love opened on Broadway in July to rave reviews, with critics hailing it as a breakthrough for Filipino-American performers.
Perfect pair: Jacobs and Llana dancing onstage as Imelda and Marcos Sr for ‘Here Lies Love’ in New York. — The Straits Times/ANN
It is the first Broadway show to have an all-Filipino cast and is co-produced by big names in the entertainment industry, such as renowned actress-singer Lea Salonga, Tony Award-winning costume and set designer Clint Ramos, and Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas.
Vargas said: “So when people say the show is told in the white man’s perspective, I’m like, ‘Wait a second’. Sometimes the erasure of the Filipinos who are making the decisions (in the show) kind of hurts a little bit. We’re very determined to make sure that Filipinos have skin in the game.”
Veteran actor Jose Llana, who plays Marcos Sr, said Here Lies Love has also allowed the cast to reconnect with their Filipino history and heritage.
He is aware of the corruption and human rights abuses that rocked the Marcos Sr years, as he was raised by activist parents who fought the dictatorship before they later moved to the United States. But other cast members did not share the same experience growing up.
“It’s not only seeing representation onstage, of seeing an entire cast of Filipinos, which in itself is very moving,” said Llana.
“We’re telling a story that, whether you grew up in the Philippines or not, it affects you. It’s a part of your lineage.”
Critics, however, have argued that this Filipino representation on Broadway comes at a hefty cost, especially at a time when disinformation plagues democracies globally.
Several studies and investigative reports in the Philippines have shown how the Marcoses tapped social media to rehabilitate their image since the 1986 People Power Revolution. Some analysts have also argued that disinformation networks helped fuel Marcos Jr’s victory in the 2022 polls.
In September, Filipino professors Nerve Macaspac from Queens College and Lara Saguisag from New York University launched an online study guide, compiling readings and other resources that seek to help the audiences of Here Lies Love to contextualise the show using credible sources of information.
The academics were concerned about how the musical’s omissions of historical facts, as well as the creative liberties the production took for the sake of storytelling, could risk contributing to the whitewashing and historical revisionism of the Marcos Sr dictatorship.
Courts in Manila and abroad have affirmed that the Marcoses amassed illegal wealth while in power. In 2018, a Philippine court convicted Imelda on seven counts of graft for illegally creating private organisations in Switzerland while she held various government positions under her husband’s rule.
These were not explicitly mentioned in the musical.
Assistant Professor Macaspac said: “It seems like Imelda is portrayed as a victim of circumstance, that she became evil and criminal because she was a victim of infidelity, that she was pressured as a woman in high society. That kind of denies her active role in the dictatorship, meaning her active role in the crimes against the Filipino people.”
The production has made tweaks to contextualise and update Here Lies Love.
During the show, a screen now projects data from Amnesty International saying that 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed under Marcos Sr.
Just before the cast performs the final song about the revolution, the DJ appears onstage to say that history is now repeating itself, as the only son and namesake of the dictator is currently the Philippine president.
But these concessions are not enough for Associate Professor Saguisag, who feels pained after repeatedly watching Here Lies Love to complete the study guide she launched with Prof Macaspac. She is a daughter of former senator Rene Saguisag, a human rights lawyer who was arrested during the Marcos Sr years.
“To be honest, it’s hurtful to see (the show) as somebody who grew up during that period,” Prof Saguisag said. “It’s just kind of like having to relive your trauma, and then you’re not given the support to process that trauma when the curtain falls.”
This is not lost on the cast and producers of Here Lies Love, who have met the two professors and even invited them to watch the show.
Filipino-American film-maker Ramona Diaz, who has watched the show in 2013 and 2023, said she has always been ambivalent about Here Lies Love.
Her award-winning 2003 documentary Imelda is among the materials the lead actors used as a guide in their portrayal of the Marcoses. Yet, she still finds it “weird” to clap for lead actress Arielle Jacobs at the end of each song, knowing she was portraying Imelda.
“I think I have chosen to embrace the show because if stories about the Philippines and Filipinos are normalised in this country via a very, very popular Broadway show, then that bodes well for our other works of art about the Philippines,” said Diaz.
Co-producer Vargas considers the study guide a “compliment”, as it means that the musical is sparking conversations on American soil about the Marcoses.
But both he and Llana reminded the public not to turn to a Broadway musical for a complete history lesson.
“I stand by the art, that we’re entertaining people, but at the same time it gives you enough history to encourage you to go home and learn more about it and understand where history fits,” Llana said.
But what about those who will watch the production and just take it for what it is – a fun, disco-themed show that made them dance with characters who later turn out to be dictators?
And therein lies the rub for Here Lies Love, said Prof Macaspac.
“It’s really asking the Filipino audience, particularly the survivors of martial law, to move past that experience, to move and kind of dance along (to the show). That’s a huge ask,” he said. — The Straits Times/ANN
