Center Theatre Group’s sensationally designed and performed West Coast Premiere of Here Lies Love, aka the Imelda Marcos Disco Musical, has everything an entirely sung-through show ought to have except one vital element–songs you’d want to listen to a second time.

 Like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita before it, Here Lies Love recounts the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale of a young woman who rose from less than ideal circumstances (Eva Duarte was born into poverty, Imelda Romualdez’s father declared bankruptcy when she was nine years old) to wealth and political power by marrying men whose ambitions led them to occupy the highest office in the land.

Unlike Evita, however, Here Lies Love isn’t the first musical to tell its heroine’s story.

That would be East West Players’ 2005 World Premiere Imelda: A New Musical, a more traditional biomusical-style take on Imelda’s life, one that alternated between dialog and songs, and with Nathan Wong as its composer, the latter couldn’t have been more tuneful.

Here Lies Love, on the other hand, follows in the tradition of such sung-through musicals as Les Miz, Miss Saigon, and the aforementioned Evita by featuring only occasional snippets of spoken words and letting the songs do the rest.

The trouble is, to this reviewer’s ears at least, there’s at most one or two of co-composers David Byrne (who also wrote the lyrics) and Fatboy Slim’s tunes that’s worth a second listen, and indeed once was enough for me when I bought the Original Cast CD back in 2014.

Fortunately for L.A. theatergoers, the production that’s been mounted for the Here Lies Love’s West Coast debut is as visually dazzling as it is showstoppingly performed.

And a carbon copy of the Broadway production this one most definitely is not. (NYC producers had the entire orchestra seating section removed in order to transform the theater into a dance club with audience members shaking their groove things while surrounded by the action.)

The dance club concept remains in L.A., though this time round the audience observes scenic designer Arnel Sancianco and lighting designer Marcella Barbeau’s eye-popping spectacle of vibrant colors and flashing lights galore from their seats.

Also new to the Mark Taper Forum production is the transformation of Broadway’s male DJ/narrator into drag queen “Imeldific” (Aura Mayari of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame), thereby giving us Imelda times two, and Mayuri makes for the most fantabulous of hosts.

Original Broadway cast member Reanne Acasio is Imelda, Carol Angeli is her childhood best friend Estrella Cumpas, and Joshua Dela Cruz is her wealthy first love Ninoy Aquino, whose political goals don’t gibe with Imelda’s desire for the finer things in life, prompting our leading lady to enter (and win) a local beauty pageant before heading off to Manila and marriage to (ironically enough) aspiring politician Ferdinand Marcos (Chris Renfro).

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Under Shehal Desai’s impressive direction, Acasio both lights and burns up the stage as one of the most complex characters ever to head a musical, Angeli does touching work as Estrella, and Dela Cruz and Renfro are dynamic as all get-out as the men in Imelda’s life.

Joan Almedilla has only one scene/song as Ninoy’s mother Aurora (“Just Ask the Flowers”) but it’s a powerhouse showstopper, and Sarah Kay shines vocally as Maria Luisa, described as “an expression of Imelda’s inner self.”

Choreographer William Carlos Angulo gives ensemble members Steven-Adam Agdeppa, Kayla Amistad, Kelvin Co, Joanne Javien Coudriet, Audrey Lyn Crabaño, JeffLorenz Garrido, Garrick Goce Macatangay, Danielle Mendoza, Justine Rafael, and Ryan Salazar the dance workout of their lives in tracks that have them rarely leaving the stage, as music directors Joe Cruz and Jennifer Lin ensure that their vocals are every bit as sensational as their footwork.

(While I understand the criticism of having the cast perform to prerecorded tracks rather than a live orchestra, I think it does make sense that dance club music would be prerecorded as it is pretty much wherever you go in the world.)

Jaymee Ngernwichit’s vibrant array of costumes, Brian Hsieh’s crystal-clear sound design, and Kaleena Jordan’s eye-catching wig, hair, and makeup designs add their own magic, with special snaps to Yee Eun Nam, whose colorful above-the-stage projections keep the audience posted on exactly who is who, and where and when we are in Imelda’s life.

Casting is by Michael Donovan Casting, Michael Donovan CSA, Richie Ferris CSA, and Joseph Pinzon. Johnisa Almariya Breault, Zandi De Jesus, and dance captain Hayden Rivas are swings.

Janelle Dote Portman is associate director. U.J. Mangune is associate choreographer. Ely Sonny Orquiza is dramaturg. Jill Gold is production stage manager and Miriam E. Mendoza and Jihee Jenny Park are assistant stage managers.

A dozen years having passed since I listened that one time to the Here Lies Love original cast CD, I was hoping my first impression of its songs might be revised when hearing them sung live and in the context of the show.

That first impression hasn’t changed, but catchy tunes or not, where design and performances are concerned, Here Lies Love definitely earns its audience cheers.

Mark Taper Forum, 35 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.centertheatregroup.org

–Steven Stanley
February 18, 2026
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Center Theatre Group, David Byrne, Fatboy Slim, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mark Taper Forum