BY NAVEEN KUMAR
Despite its subject’s penchant for designer heels, you’ll want to don comfortable footwear for Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s immersive rock musical about Imelda Marcos, which returned to the Public Theater this month after a successful run there last season. Under the direction of Alex Timbers, the musical-cum-dance party pulses to its unrelenting beat like a well-oiled machine. Warning: If you’re at all uncomfortable throwing your hands in the air like you just don’t care, you’ll get over it.
More downtown disco than conventional theatre, the room is lined with stages along its perimeter, outfitted with a stellar sound system, a collage of screens and more than a few lasers. In the center, a rotating platform shifts positions throughout, as the story bounds from one corner of the room to the next.
Returning to the roles they created in the Public’s 2013 production, the company is uniformly excellent (and likely having the time of their lives). Ruthie Ann Miles is radiant as Imelda (to whom she bears an almost eerie resemblance), transforming from pretty young thing to persona non grata without losing a moment of sympathy. Jose Llana (as President Marcos) and Conrad Ricamora (as Imelda’s former flame and political rival Benigno Aquino) each have a unique matinee idol quality and a magnetism that’s hard to resist.
While Evita may elicit a quiet tear, Hear Lies Love makes you feel all the feelings—with a rousing conclusion that ends with, yes, a dance party. If you have any doubt as to your fellow revelers’ enjoyment, look around and you’ll see their faces tilted up to the light—grinning from ear to ear.
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar (photos:joan marcus)