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On July 30th, 2023 m’lady and I went to see a Broadway musical called Here Lies Love with our friends Katie and Kim. The musical was written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim and though I was wholly unfamiliar with half of those people my familiarity and massive respect for the other half of them (David Byrne, obvs) was more than enough for me to be excited about having a ticket, as expensive as it was (and it was expensive).
It was a matinee performance, as we were all in New York City for a Phish run at Madison Square Garden (also: obvs) and would be seeing the band play later in the day. And so after meeting for a really nice lunch the four of us walked to the Broadway Theatre – yes, it is a Broadway theatre in that it is on Broadway, but it is also named the “Broadway Theatre” – and we took our seats above the dancefloor, stage left.
Yes, I typed “dancefloor”.
Now, I haven’t been to too many Broadway shows (I believe this was my fourth, if you count the Michael Moore show I saw during the 2017 Phish MSG run, which was mostly just him standing on stage doing “standup”), but I can tell you this show was unusual. I walked in knowing nothing at all about it, except that there wasn’t going to be a stage per se, and that if you were on the “dancefloor” you should expect to be moved around a lot during the performance. That all sounded vague and weird so with the only sit-down seating options being the balcony or a tiny strip two rows deep running above either side of the dancefloor, well, we bought seats in one of those tiny strips.
When we arrived we were escorted through a labyrinth of backstage alleys and curtained areas. Turns out that just as there was no actual stage, there was no actual backstage either. As we maneuvered to our seats we literally walked by actors applying makeup and stagehands readying ropes.
When we made it up to our seats I was finally able to see what ticketbastard had been trying to describe. Fifteen feet below us was a large dancefloor with a small stage at either end and a slightly larger stage smack-dab in the middle. The stage in the middle had two catwalks running off of it; this stage proved to be on wheels and would act as a pliable divider for the several hundred people that had purchased floor tickets. Also on the floor were a number of stagehands dressed in coveralls, and it was these workers who would spend the entire show physically moving the stages and the catwalks around, as the play’s actions required. This near-continuous action forced the crowd on the floor to remain on their toes as it were. From our perch we could see the people being forever jostled around and separated from their companions.
The dancefloor was huge; much bigger than any normal stage production would allow. But get this: they had built a floor on top of the theatre’s entire seating area (except the balcony) and married it with the regular stage and the wings, turning the old theatre into a massive dancehall. And like I say, that left only the balcony to serve as general seating, along with the few dozen seats where I and the people directly across from me were sitting.
There were a few small auxiliary stages scattered above all this, most prominent among them being a booth that held the omnipresent DJ/Master of Ceremonies who spun tunes as he introduced the characters below. And that’s where the show began.
I mentioned that I walked in not knowing anything about the musical aside from the unusual seating arrangements, right? Get this: Ten minutes after the musical started I leaned into m’lady and asked, “What is the main character’s name again?”
“You mean Imelda?” she whisperwondered.
“Yeah, that’s it. Thanks,” I answered.
Imagine my surprise when it soon dawned on me that Here Lies Love was a musical based on the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos.
“Ohhhh…”
Not only that, it was the first Broadway musical that ever featured an all-Filipino cast.
“Ohhhh…”
And get this: there was not a single mention of shoes. Not one. Turns out the Imelda Marcos story is much more cruel than just a bunch of shoes.
“Ohhhh…”
My gawd, it was such an incredible production! It was informative, it was entertaining, and it was an absolute feat for the senses, but more than that was the incredible staging. With nothing more than a few stagehands pushing those mobile stages around the space below us was constantly being transformed. It was astounding to watch such out-of-the-box creativity unfold so seamlessly and so perfectly. I cried, twice. And while the story, the acting, and the music were all off-the-charts great, it was the creativity of the staging – nay, the magic of the staging – that made me cry both times. Strange that I would get so emotional from seeing the underlying mechanics of the show come together, but I did.
During the performance I ducked out to find the bathroom and was again amazed to find myself freely walking amongst actors waiting for their cues through the nonexistent wings as I did so. What an incredibly brave way to stage a Broadway musical. And kudos to the Broadway Theatre for allowing their venue to get stripped to the core and lay itself bare to the ticketed masses.
I had such a great time. That Imelda Marcos and her husband were right bastards. Astoundingly, their son Bongbong Marcos currently runs The Philippines. Which just goes to show you, no matter how much power you seize or how iron-fisted a leader you become, you still can’t shake an embarrassing childhood nickname like “Bongbong”.
Would recommend. (The musical, not Bongbong.)
Todd Man Out 