At the Mark Taper Forum, the West Coast premiere of the musical about Imelda Marcos is hampered by a book that tonally fails to be either Evita or Les Misérables.
By John Lavitt
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 02-22-2026
The Mark Taper Forum has been transformed into a neon-drenched disco for Center Theatre Group’s West Coast premiere of Here Lies Love. Directed by the Center Theatre Group’s Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director Snehal Desai, the production attempts to turn the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos into an immersive cautionary spectacle.
Yet, despite an arsenal of infectious music by Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner David Byrne and Grammy Award winner Fatboy Slim, combined with a powerhouse all-Filipino cast, the production feels like a party that doesn’t quite know what it’s celebrating or perhaps mourning. Like Evita, the show flirts with pop-icon mythmaking. Like Les Misérables, it gestures toward revolution. It never fully commits to either.
The central issue lies in the show’s vacillating perspective on its protagonist. As Imelda, Reanne Acasio is a vocal powerhouse, tracing the journey from the “Rose of Leyte” to the “Iron Butterfly” with precision. However, the script leaves her in a dramaturgical no-man’s-land.
At times, the show leans into a satirical, almost campy “Imeldific” persona, enhanced here by the addition of Aura Mayari as the “Host,” a drag-inspired commentator who acts as Imelda’s inner ego. While Mayari is magnetic, this addition further muddies the tone. Are we meant to see Imelda as a tragic victim of her own ambition, a shallow fashion icon, or a ruthless architect of martial law? By trying to be all three, the show often settles for a glossy superficiality that undermines the tragic history of the People Power Revolution. The simple truth is that thousands of people died and millions suffered so this family could indulge their materialistic whims and fantasies.
The immersion remains the show’s greatest selling point and its most jarring contradiction. The Taper has been impressively reconfigured to evoke a 1970s nightclub, with high-energy choreography by William Carlos Angulo. Indeed, with song piling on top of song, the musical’s pace keeps the audience in constant motion.
There is a lingering discomfort in being asked to “dance along” to the soundtrack of a dictatorship. When the production pivots from the glitter of Studio 54 to the grim reality of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination (played with grounded urgency by Joshua Dela Cruz), the emotional whiplash isn’t just severe — it feels ethically unresolved.
Technically, the show is a marvel. Arnel Sancianco’s scenic design and Yee Eun Nam’s projections create a frenetic, media-saturated environment that mirrors the Marcoses’ obsession with image. In the press release, it says, “The show goes beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes to explore true questions of authoritarian rule and responsibility. It is a story fueled by greed, power, and disco that feels as timely today as ever.”
However, it feels like the countless shoes and the tyrannical woman’s obsession with indulgence and acquisition are shunted aside in favor of an almost pounding emphasis on glitz and glamour.
Ultimately, Here Lies Love is a technical triumph and a vital showcase for Filipino talent, but it remains a thematic puzzle. It wants to condemn fascism while simultaneously basking in the aesthetic of its perpetrators. For those looking for a high-octane theatrical experience, the Taper’s disco is open for business. But for those looking for a clear-eyed look at history, the reflection in the disco ball remains frustratingly distorted.
In the end, the disco ball spins beautifully, but it never stops long enough to let history speak clearly. In truth, the voices of the victims are never truly reflected in the mirrored fragments of the disco ball, but shunted aside as they were in reality.
“Here Lies Love” runs through April 5, 2026, at the Mark Taper Forum.
