Here Lies Love

About the show

As clubbers enter Club Millennium, the DJ sets up the party with music and the Imelda Marcos motif. The DJ instructs the clubbers to enjoy the party as they watch the club's staff reenact the life of Imelda Marcos. The club ensemble enters, singing about the excess of wealth demonstrated by Americans, and conversely how some may find that display desirable ("American Troglodyte"). Imelda Romualdez is shown as a poor girl in stormy Leyte with best friend Estrella Cumpas and expresses her dreams of joining the upper class ("Here Lies Love"). Ninoy Aquino appears and describes his life as a son of a rich Filipino family, his pride in his country, and his endearment to Imelda ("Child of the Philippines"). However, their relationship is short-lived: while Ninoy wishes to pursue politics and give voice to the people, Imelda is only interested in "love and beauty," and they break up ("Opposite Attraction"). Imelda, brushing off the breakup as Ninoy deciding she was "too tall", joins and wins a beauty pageant ("Rose of Tacloban"). Estrella suggests she move to Manila to try to climb the social ladder. She arrives around the same time that Ferdinand Marcos is becoming even more famous ("A Perfect Hand"). Ferdinand and Imelda meet each other and engage in a whirlwind courtship that quickly leads to marriage ("Eleven Days"). Estrella, having been left behind in Imelda's rise in status, admires from afar and reminisces ("When She Passed By"). Ferdinand and Imelda honeymoon and become a power couple among the Philippines' upper class ("Sugartime Baby"). As the years pass, Imelda reflects on her more innocent childhood days in poverty but decides she will become the perfect wife to the Senator, all while self-medicating to suppress the stress of life in the public sphere ("Walk Like a Woman"). Maria Luisa, an expression of Imelda's inner self, encourages her to become a figure for the country at large. Imelda and Ferdinand campaign as part of Ferdinand's presidential bid, promising various construction projects to improve the country's image, and end up winning ("Don't You Agree? / Pretty Face"). In Malacañang, Imelda spearheads lavish parties and travels overseas to party with celebrities in New York at Studio 54 and other society haunts ("Dancing Together"). However, unrest begins to stir in the Philippines due to the Marcoses spending the peoples' money on parties and construction projects over infrastructure and public health; in the wake of these events, including the Manila Film Center disaster, an opposition movement forms under the now-Senator Ninoy Aquino, who puts aside his past with Imelda and the potential risk against his life to become one of the Marcoses' most outspoken critics ("Fabulous One"). Around the same time, Ferdinand engages in an affair with Dovie Beams: Maria Luisa sings to a grief-stricken Imelda that this could only be expected from a man like Ferdinand ("Men Will Do Anything"). As Imelda reflects on her life, she decides her new purpose is in service of the Philippines, choosing to symbolically rid herself of her past ("Star and Slave"). When Ferdinand becomes sick, he begs for forgiveness. Fed up with him, Imelda declares that she will run the country as he is too weak to effectively govern; she becomes the de facto leader of the Philippines, though the regime maintains that Ferdinand is still in charge ("Poor Me"). Unrest only escalates under Imelda's leadership, with Ninoy calling attention to the regime's crackdown on dissenters, but Imelda distracts the clubgoers and international leaders with parties and diplomacy ("Please Don't"). Estrella does a tell-all interview revealing Imelda's poor background, undermining the narrative Imelda tries to push that she was born into a wealthy family. Imelda, increasingly delusional with power, confronts Estrella and offers her money to retract her statements. When Estrella refuses, Imelda has her imprisoned ("Solano Avenue"). Due to the growing numbers of protests in Manila ("Riots and Bombs"), Ferdinand declares martial law, and the ensemble sings of their experiences and suffering, mocking the façade of safety the Marcoses claim to provide ("Order 1081"). Among the dissenters is Ninoy, who criticizes the Marcoses for events like the Plaza Miranda bombing, and he is eventually imprisoned for seven years. Imelda visits Ninoy in his cell and, citing their past relationship and her claimed sympathy to his plight, frees him on the condition he goes to the United States and never comes back, offering a veiled threat that he will be killed if he remains ("Seven Years"). Ninoy flees to the United States with his wife Cory and son Benny but returns in 1983, only to be assassinated on the tarmac, implied to be at Imelda's orders ("Gate 37"). At his funeral, Ninoy's mother Aurora calls for the people to revolt as the attendees don yellow armbands, raise their hands in the Laban sign, and burn Imelda and Ferdinand in effigy ("Just Ask the Flowers"). As the Marcoses' popularity and support crumbles, Imelda pathetically asks the people why they have turned against her after all she believes she did for them, while specters of Estrella, Ferdinand, and Maria Luisa similarly accuse her of abandoning them after they helped her get where she is ("Why Don't You Love Me?"). In the wake of the People Power Revolution, Imelda and Ferdinand are evacuated from the palace by a U.S. Air Force helicopter, bringing their regime to an end. As they leave, a still-delusional Imelda continues to insist she did everything "for love". In the silence that follows, the DJ comes down from his booth. He sings the story of the People Power Revolution while playing his guitar, gradually joined by the rest of the ensemble as they collectively marvel at the peaceful end to an otherwise violent regime ("God Draws Straight").