Here Lies Love Resources

From the Creative Team

Director’s Note

By Snehal Desai

It’s a true joy to be back directing at the Taper after last season’s American Idiot, created in collaboration with our friends at Deaf West. Thank you all for the extraordinary support you gave that production—support that helped it become the highest-grossing musical in the Taper’s history.

When I was thinking of how we might follow it up, I kept thinking about the show you are about to experience today. Like American Idiot, Here Lies Love is a groundbreaking, genre-defying musical inspired by a concept album. In this instance, the show was dreamed up by the ingenious, virtuosic mind of David Byrne, who invited Fatboy Slim to join him in a one-of-a-kind musical collaboration. The result is a pulsing, immersive, politically charged, fever dream of a musical that has stayed with me since I first saw it in 2013—and knew I wanted to bring to LA someday. And, well, it only took a decade and some change, but that day is finally here! 

This marks the first production of Here Lies Love since its Broadway run in 2023, as well as its very first time being staged here in Los Angeles. That feels especially meaningful in a city that is home to the largest Filipino population outside of the Philippines itself. A big thank you to the maestro himself, David Byrne, and this knockout group of artists who helped bring this show to life. This musical doesn’t just arrive in LA—it lands here with purpose.

I encourage you to spend time with this program. It’s a companion piece to the show in many ways. Inside, you’ll find creative statements, dramaturgical notes, a historical timeline, and stories inspired by this audacious work and the complex, challenging chapter of history it explores. Think of it as your guide to what you’re about to feel, question, dance through, and be asked to sit with after the final beat drops.

Remembering People Power: Art, Diaspora, and the Afterlives of Authoritarian Rule

Dramaturgical note by Ely Sonny Orquiza

In February 1986, millions of Filipinos gathered along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) and across the country in one of the most significant nonviolent uprisings of the twentieth century. Over four days, ordinary citizens, religious leaders, civil society organizations, and defecting members of the military united to challenge the authoritarian rule of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., whose regime had governed for more than two decades. The People Power Revolution culminated in Marcos’s exile to Hawaii and the inauguration of Corazon “Cory” Aquino as Philippines’ 11th and Asia’s first female president, restoring democratic governance and inaugurating the Philippines’ Fifth Republic. The uprising emerged from the long shadow of Martial Law, declared in 1972, during which civil liberties were suspended, opposition leaders imprisoned, independent media silenced, and thousands subjected to torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing, as documented by Amnesty International and later by the Philippine Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.

Economic collapse, entrenched corruption, and escalating political violence deepened public discontent throughout the early 1980s. The 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. galvanized resistance both within the Philippines and among Filipinos abroad. When Marcos called a snap presidential election in February 1986, widely condemned as fraudulent by international observers, public outrage reached a breaking point. The success of People Power has since become a foundational case study in scholarship on nonviolent resistance and democratic transition, demonstrating how sustained, collective action can disrupt entrenched authoritarian power.

As the revolution approaches its 40th anniversary in 2026, its legacy resonates strongly within Filipino diaspora communities, particularly in Los Angeles. During the 1970s and 1980s, LA served as a major hub of anti-Marcos organizing, where students, church groups, labor organizers, and grassroots coalitions protested human rights abuses and pressured U.S. policymakers to withdraw support for the dictatorship. These transnational networks of resistance remain deeply influential today, especially amid renewed debates over historical memory following the election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as president in 2022 and growing concerns about disinformation and historical revisionism surrounding the Martial Law era. 

Within this contested landscape, cultural work becomes a critical site for examining power and memory. Here Lies Love, the musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, occupies a complex position by centering the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos through spectacle- forward staging and disco aesthetics. While widely praised for its innovation, past productions has also sparked debate about its limitations in representing the human cost of dictatorship. This production, featuring an all-Filipino cast and majority-AAPI creative team, is not intended as a definitive or comprehensive history, but as an entry point for dialogue and inquiry. For Filipino and Filipino American audiences, particularly in Los Angeles, the musical often functions as more than entertainment, serving as a catalyst for dialogue about historical accountability, intergenerational memory, and the ongoing afterlives of authoritarian rule. As People Power turns forty, its legacy reminds us that democratic gains are neither permanent nor inevitable, and that remembrance must be paired with vigilance, truth-telling, and collective action.

Timeline

Check back soon for more information.

Learn More

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell, 1984

What to Know

• Here Lies Love is an experiential musical that examines how power, spectacle, and myth shaped the rise of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos—and how those myths persist.
• The production intentionally uses the language of glamour and pop culture to reflect (not celebrate) the dichotomy of reality vs illusion, and opulence vs poverty.
• The show is not a historical documentary; it is an artistic entry point into deeper conversations about memory, mythology, and history.

Why CTG Is Presenting It

• Los Angeles and California are home to the largest and most politically engaged Filipino diasporas in the world.
• CTG believes this community context makes LA a uniquely important place for this work to be experienced, discussed, and interrogated.
• The Mark Taper Forum has a long tradition of presenting challenging work that sparks civic dialogue. This is the second musical at the Mark Taper Forum programmed and directed by Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director Snehal Desai, anchoring a new era of artistic development that centers culturally relevant civic dialogue.
• Artistic Director Snehal Desai’s mission is to welcome new audiences to Center Theatre Group venues, particularly the AAPI community of which he is not only a part of but helped champion during his time as Artistic Director at East West Players. It also affords the opportunity to portray the show in a new context and light from previous iterations of the property.
• The CTG production features an all-Filipino cast and an AAPI creative team. This new production includes new songs added from the original concept album, in an interactive setting. Every audience member will have an assigned seat

Our Commitment

• CTG is committed to listening, partnership, and contextualization.
• We recognize that audience reactions may vary, from excitement to anger to grief. All are valid.
• This production is surrounded by opportunities for conversation, reflection, and learning.
• CTG is working in collaboration with Filipino community leaders and key stakeholders in the LA community to ensure messaging and audience engagement is handled with the utmost care.
• As part of this commitment, CTG will be hosting Filipino community nights, community conversations, talk backs, and events throughout the run of the engagement to further dialogue.

Invitation

• We invite audiences to experience the show critically, ask questions, and engage in dialogue with one another. CTG is hosting a variety of events and opportunities to engage in this way. Join us!

Here Lies Love is a groundbreaking musical about former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her family’s rise to power and subsequent fall at the hands of the Philippine People Power Revolution. Our production of Here Lies Love at the Mark Taper Forum is not a repeat of previous iterations; it is a continuation of an evolving conversation shaped by community, place, and history.

As you prepare for your visit, here is how we have evolved this production for this moment.

A New Creative Vision
The Broadway run of Here Lies Love created opportunities for connection, conversation, and reflection, particularly within Filipino and Filipino American communities. CTG has approached this production with those responses at the forefront. We are proud to present this story through the lens of an all-Filipino cast and an AAPI creative team.

Wowowee: The Variety Show Frame
This production is presented as a "journey of discovery" with a brand-new experiential form. You are positioned as a TV studio audience for a Filipino noontime variety show in the style of popular show Wowowee. This intentional framing for the show seeks to mirror how authoritarian power seduces, distracts, and ultimately attempts to normalize itself through by seeking to control the narrative you see and experience. Along the way, you’ll also hear new songs added from the original concept album that provide deeper context to the story.

Deeply Rooted in LA
This is the first major production of the show in Los Angeles—a city with deep historical and political ties to the Filipino diaspora. We are working with local community leaders to make resources available during the run and create dedicated spaces and events available during the run of the show for dialogue and reflection while also acknowledging that the impact of this story extends far beyond the stage and continues to reverberate to this day. We hope this production will be a starting place for conversation and learning of Filipino history during the time period the show covers.

Additional Reading

Here Lies Love in Critical Contexts: A Public Syllabus

Here Lies Love in Critical Contexts: A Public Syllabus is a compilation of readings and resources that help contextualize and complicate David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love, which was first staged at The Public in 2013 and premiered on Broadway in July 2023. Organized thematically, the resources turn up the volume on key points that are referenced—or elided—in the production. Here Lies Love in Critical Contexts is a practice of paying attention to every beat and every false note, of hearing through distractions and distortions of tyrants. We hope this public syllabus strengthens our capacity and resolve to never again dance with dictators.

Read It Here

Stage Talks: Community Conversations

Join us for a series of post-show conversations in support of Filipino community gathering and enjoy Filipino treats on us!

Past, Present & Future
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at 7:30PM
Voices from academia, civic life, and media explore how the history in Here Lies Love connects to Filipino-American life today – and what it reveals about the community’s future.

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Elements of Design (LGBTQ+ Night)
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 7:30PM
Artists discuss costume, drag, and design as cultural expression, highlighting the intersections of Filipino identity, queer visibility, and visual storytelling.

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Music for the People
Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 1PM
A conversation celebrating Filipino sound and today’s artists, exploring music as a force for identity, joy, and resistance.

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More About LA’s Historic Filipinotown 

Just minutes away from the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre is Historic Filipinotown, a neighborhood steeped in Filipino American history. Many Filipino immigrants first began to settle closer to Little Tokyo, in a community dubbed “Little Manila,” from the 1920s to 1940s. The Music Center’s construction itself, along with the spread of the 110 Freeway, led to the community’s migration toward Temple St. in the 1950s. Conversations around naming the area began around the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 2002 that Historic Filipinotown became an officially recognized Los Angeles neighborhood. Historic Filipinotown is home to a rich cultural community that speaks to Filipino American’s past, present, and future in Los Angeles. Historic Filipinotown LA (HiFiLA) and FilAM ARTS compiled a list of some of the businesses, restaurants, and cultural touchpoints in the area.