Here Lies Love, the disco musical centering around former first lady Imelda Marcos that opened on Off-Broadway in 2013, is making its Broadway debut in June this year — and theater icon Lea Salonga is set to join the cast.
The Filipina actress, who debuted a Tony award-winning performance as Kim in Miss Saigon in 1991 on Broadway, shared that she was excited to be part of Here Lies Love for a limited guest engagement, which showcases an immersive experience and an innovative set design that transform the theater into a disco ballroom.
Salonga is set to play Aurora Aquino, the mother of assassinated Marcos rival Ninoy Aquino, and is set to sing Just Ask the Flowers, where she grieves her son’s death and urges the people to revolt. She also serves as the show’s producer.
“[Being part of the show] is very special to me for a few reasons. Number one: as a Filipina artist, I am incredibly excited that audiences will finally get to see — on Broadway — this beautiful, impactful, and important musical,” she said in a video on Instagram.
“Two: I get to go back to the Broadway Theatre, which is where I made my own Broadway debut over thirty years ago, which is wild for me to think about,” she added, calling it a “full-circle” moment.
Lea joins Jose Llana and Conrad Ricamora, who both originated the characters of Ninoy Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos in its Off-Broadway run.
News of the show opening on Broadway after 10 years was not met with all positive reactions, however — some criticized the timing of the show with the Marcoses’ return to power, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. nearly a year into his term as president.
Others pointed out that the show risked glamorizing Imelda Marcos, a formidable political figure in her own right, and glossing over the tragedies of Marcos’ 21-year rule.
Addressing online backlash, the Here Lies Love Broadway accounts released a statement clarifying that the show was “anti-Marcos” and “pro-Filipino,” explaining the production’s intentions in staging the musical:
“History repeats itself. Democracies all over the world are under threat. The biggest threat to any democracy is disinformation, Here Lies Love offers a creative way of re-information — an innovative template on how to stand up to tyrants,” it wrote.
The show added that it wanted to address the Philippines’ and United States’ shared histories. “We cannot tell the modern history of the Philippines without the United States. They’re intertwined. Here Lies Love is an Anti-Marcos show. It is a pro-Filipino show, being told in a quintessential American form: the Broadway musical.”
Here Lies Love was written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. It originally ran Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2013, before running at the National Theater in London in 2014, and the Seattle Rep in 2017.
