‘Imelda and Us’ in National Theater London

It took 44 years before I could return to London, triumphant `with the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos proudly in hand. It is all happening on October 24 at the National Theater in the West End but it has reincarnated into a musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slip called “Here Lies Love.” After a wildly successful stint in New York it is coming to London and the producers have invited my daughter Veronica and I to join the opening of the musical.

According to one review David Byrne and Fatboy Slim have created what they called a “revolutionary musical.” Well, if you think of New York taking into something revolutionary, then it must be exciting. In this day and age, I didn’t have to wait to know what “Here Lies Love” the musical on Imelda would be. There are reviews from the New York performances and all I had to do is google for them. Since there are Filipinos who may not have access to Internet here are some of the reviews of the musical in New York.

“A life-giving, roof-raising, booty shaking blast of blast of pure joy.’?Vogue

“Here Lies Love traces the astonishing journey of Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines, from her meteoric rise to power to descent into infamy and disgrace.”

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“The new Dorfman Theatre is transformed into a pulsating club for this immersive theatrical event; Alex Timbers’ production combines heart-pounding beats with adrenaline-fuelled choreography and a remarkable 360-degree staging.”

It does promise to be a lively affair and visitors are asked to dress comfortably and ready to dance. Children are welcome too. Well they have to be 14 years plus.

I could not understand the additional information about buying “standing tickets” but looking at the preview in the Internet it says what to expect – there will be no chairs so the audience will have to stand, mill around the floor and it adds encouraged “to dance”. There will be chairs for senior citizens or anyone who just wants to people watch. The whole theater will be set into a disco with “Actors and pieces of set move through the performance space in the Pit; standing audiences will move with them.

The show contains loud music, smoke and haze and strobe lights.

“How do you write a disco musical about Imelda Marcos? By putting yourself in her fabulous shoes, of course. David Byrne describes how the notorious First Lady’s high life dazzled him out of a career low.

There was no sudden flash of inspiration that told me I needed to do a disco musical about Imelda Marcos. The idea didn’t arrive fully formed, but came into focus gradually.

“It does sound fun. Here’s what David Bryne says  on why he came up with a musical that I can only describe as innovative, out of the box…”I had an insight while reading Ryszard Kapuscinski’s book The Emperor, about the court of Haile Selassie, the former ruler of Ethiopia. It seemed to me that the bubble world of a powerful person as depicted in that book, and possibly that of many powerful people, is not unlike the artificial world of much Asian theatre. The behavior is prescribed, ritualistic and regimented. A kind of dance of power. And, given the similarities between Asian theatrical forms and the world of downtown New York theatre, a world I had a sometime relationship with, I thought, maybe someday… and then filed that insight away. (I later heard Jonathan Miller did a stage and TV adaptation of The Emperor, so I wasn’t the only one who found a kind of theatre in that book.)

Some years later, I read in a newspaper that, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Madame Marcos had a mirrorball installed in one floor of her New York townhouse, and that she loved going to dance clubs. I am old enough to have recalled her going to nightspots while her husband, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, had the Philippines under martial law. I found it disturbing that Andy Warhol, for example, an artist I admired, would hang out with Imelda at fashionable discos. I had followed the political bombings in the Philippines, the assassination of Benigno Aquino in 1983, and the People Power revolution that ousted the Marcoses a few years later. Those events were worldwide news. And of course, everyone knew about the shoes that were discovered after the revolution. Given my political leanings, I didn’t particularly like this person.

I remembered my previous insight, and wondered whether this powerful woman had a story arc beyond those famous shoes. And, if so, wouldn’t it be cool if that pulsing sonic world she inhabited helped tell that story?”

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 Imelda did have a story and that is probably why my daughter, Veronica of Al-Jazeera who made a documentary entitled “Imelda and Me” was invited to participate in the National Theater in London. Well, the backbone of that documentary “Imelda and Me” is about how the writing of the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos had repercussions both to her life and to the Philippine nation. At the time when I was making the decision whether or not to write the story  I did not realize just how far reaching those repercussions would be to my family and the Philippines. I only had to contend with conscience and it told me that “write it” because that is following your conscience. And so I did.  Many books have been written about the Marcoses and the dictatorship but the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos has stood the test of time. Up to today, people look for it. I recently published hard copies of the 13th edition but it is all sold out. I just finished writing Imelda Romualdez Marcos: The Verdict and it will be the last of the trilogy. That verdict was crucial. It is the aftermath of the writing of the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos , Her Rise and Fall, and The Verdict that made the story go beyond Veronica’s Imelda and Me. Insread whe was led to call our appearance in London’s National Theatre as “Imelda and Us.” She, me and all of us dancing to the tempo of the tragic story of her hubris.