the concept album Here lies the lovemusical work released in 2010 by a collaboration of the renowned david byrne Y Skinny fat boywill make its Broadway debut.
It is a theatrical adaptation of that immersive work on the life of politics Imelda Marcosprominent first lady in the Philippines between 1965 and 1986.
The first will be next July 20th and will have Alex Timbers as director and Annie-B Parson as choreographer, according to the specialized site Deadline.
The details of the musical
Based on the rise and fall of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his controversial wife Imelda Marcos, Here lies the love It has music by Byrne, former leader of the legendary English new wave band Talking Heads, before his successful solo career.
Byrne co-wrote the musical with Briton Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, a DJ who was also bassist for indie group The Housemartins in the 1980s, before his leap to revolutionize electronic music a decade later with the hits . The Rockafeller Skank, praise you, right here now Y Weapon of choice.
The stage-musical adaptation already had precedents in 2013 in an off-Broadway performance, at the Public Theater in New York, also at the Royal National Theater in London a year later and later at the Seattle Repertory Theater in 2017.
The new musical will be produced by Hal Luftig, Patrick Catullo, Diana DiMenna, Clint Ramos and José Antonio Vargas. The hall will adapt its space to allow a place to dance, move and be next to the actors of the show, as it has the characteristic of allowing the public to access the places while remaining seated or standing.
The 90-minute show about Marcos’ journey from rags to riches to exile, it is a 360° immersive experience.
The origin of the project
This musical actually began as a concept album performed at a few concerts, including a 2007 date at Carnegie Hall, before morphing into a full-length theater piece directed by Alex Timbers with 360-degree editing.
Here lies the love it is considered one of Byrne’s more bizarre projects, featuring 22 songs referencing the lives of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, and her childhood employee, Estrella Cumpas.
Imelda, now 93, was an ambitious young woman who went on to compete and win Miss Philippines, and soon after married Ferdinand Marcos, the Filipino dictator. Eleven years after her husband’s death, he had to face a corruption trial. The figure of him also became very famous for his obsession with shoes: it was said that he had more than 3,000 pairs.
Extravagant as few, Imelda and her husband have been accused of having amassed a fortune of over 10 billion dollars, obtained illegally. The question why Byrne chose this character was asked by himself in the introduction of the album:
“The story that interests me is to ask what makes a powerful person tick, how do they invent and reinvent themselves? from the theater to the disco?
Source: Clarin
