Left: Fatboy Slim, photo by Don Arnold/WireImage. Right: David Byrne, photo by Mike Lawrie. Photos via Getty Images.
Here Lies Love — a disco musical created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos — will close on Broadway on November 26, the show’s producers announced this morning (November 7). An ambitious, $22 million affair, the production took over Manhattan’s Broadway Theatre, renovating the space to accommodate spinning stages and a state-of-the-art audio system that created a club atmosphere. The show’s 150th and final public performance on Broadway is scheduled to take place November 26.
The Broadway Theatre’s production of Here Lies Love opened to the public on July 20 after nearly a month of previews and a decade of on-and-off productions across the country (the first being an off-Broadway stint at New York’s Public Theater). The play puts an unconventional spin on Marcos’ story — one involving corruption and oppression at the highest level during the dictatorial reign of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos. The new production opened roughly a year after Imelda and Ferdinand’s son, Bongbong Marcos, succeeded Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines. He remains in power, and his mother is still alive today at 94.
According to Deadline, the play’s short run places it “among Broadway’s priciest flops in recent years.” The publication sites numbers from last week — in which the musical reportedly filled 79 percent of seats at the Broadway, grossing $768,244 — to illustrate the point.
“Artistic excellence can be achieved,” Here Lies Love’s producers wrote in a statement on its closing. “But the reality is, succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit––it also means creating the audience for it. And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.” Read their full statement below.
The FADER has reached out to a publicist for the production for further comment.
When we started this journey to bring this bold and original work to Broadway, we asked ourselves: Can anyone produce on Broadway in a new way? Is there a new path forward? What does the template look like? Will audiences want something radically new? Who will those audiences be?
We have learned a great deal about the answers to those questions. Yes, new ways can work. Artistic excellence can be achieved. But the reality is, succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit––it also means creating the audience for it. And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.
Every aspect of our production brought new life and fresh ideas to Broadway, from the innovative music of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, the beautiful choreography of Annie-B Parson, the masterful staging by our visionary director Alex Timbers, and the jaw-dropping set, lighting, sound, and projection designs by David Korins, Justin Townsend, M.L. Dogg, Cody Spencer and Peter Nigrini, and among the most dazzling collection of costumes ever seen on Broadway created by Clint Ramos.
As the first-ever fully binational producing team, we are deeply proud and honored to have brought this pioneering theatrical event to Broadway. The first all-Filipino acting company on Broadway received universal critical acclaim, celebrated by thousands of people from diverse backgrounds, including record numbers who experienced going to a Broadway show for the first time.
As an artistic, cultural, and commercial enterprise, we believe that Here Lies Love had to be presented on Broadway. We hope anyone who hasn’t seen the production will be able to get to the show before November 26.
