‘Here Lies Love’ Broadway Review: Murder on the Dance Floor

metroweekly.com:

Here Lies Love (★★★★★) works so well. Patrons expecting the ambiance of a standard theater will be shocked to see the major transformation that has occurred at the Broadway Theater, which for 10 years was home to both the original production and revival of Miss Saigon.Gone are the plush crimson-red orchestra seats.

Hidden is the traditional stage where, in usual cases, the action would unfold. In their places, an enormous dance floor, 63,000 pounds of structural steel that comprise a variety of moveable stages, video screens enveloping the auditorium, energetic hues of pink and purple, a grand disco ball, and catwalks used by cast members to make this explosive show a completely immersive experience.At the hefty price tag of $22 million dollars, it’s all to tell the story of the rise and fall of former Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda, and the people who stood in their way on their way to the top.The theater’s design, created by Tony award-winner David Korins, is precisely how the former First Lady of the Philippines would want it.

She once famously quipped, “I love beauty and I am allergic to ugliness.” Yet there is an insurmountable amount of political ugliness that she and her late husband have created, defended, and denied to their country — and to the rest of the world.At 94, she is still alive and residing in Manila.

It’s a sure bet that she would take umbrage to how she is depicted in this tuner that was conceived, composed, and written by Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award winner David Byrne, with additional music by Fatboy Slim.Ticket buyers will enter the 90-minute spectacle with a pie-eyed expectation to have a good time — and, in fact, they absolutely will.