David Byrne & Fatboy Slim’s acclaimed 2010 album Here Lies Love receives its first vinyl release on August 11, 2023, to coincide with the new musical’s Broadway debut, in a production opening tonight, July 20, at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Here Lies Love is a double-disc song cycle about the rise and fall of the Philippines’ notorious Imelda Marcos and the People Power Revolution. The album was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and DJ/recording artist Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B, and pop, including Florence Welch, Cyndi Lauper, Steve Earle, Sharon Jones, Natalie Merchant, Tori Amos, Kate Pierson, St. Vincent, My Brightest Diamond, Nellie McKay, Martha Wainwright, Róisín Murphy, and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on “American Troglodyte.”

Byrne created Here Lies Love as a musical theater piece, to be mounted in disco and nightclub settings, reflecting the globe-trotting Marcos’ taste for such velvet-roped spots as Studio 54 and Regine’s. In 2006, he performed the work-in-progress versions to enthusiastic audiences at New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Adelaide Festival in Australia before releasing this recording. Before its current Broadway incarnation, an award-winning theatrical production eventually premiered at The Public Theater in New York in 2013—the original cast recording of which was released on Nonesuch in 2014. The show then travelled to London’s National Theater for a sold-out run from 2014–15 and was remounted at the Seattle Repertory Theater in 2017.

Here Lies Love’s sunny arrangements act in counterpoint to the reality of the Marcos’ increasingly repressive regime, reflecting the imagined inner life of the glamour-obsessed Imelda. Byrne explains, “For me, the darker side of the excesses are, for the most part, a matter of record. A lot of the audience is going to come with that knowledge already. What’s more of a challenge is to get inside the head of the person who was behind all of that and understand what made them tick.”

Many of Byrne’s lyrics are constructed from actual Imelda quotes, including the project’s title, the words that Imelda, now returned to the Philippines from US-assisted exile in Hawaii, would like to have inscribed on her gravestone. In addition to a newly written liner note, this new release of the album includes Byrne’s illustrations of the story via archival photos. In a detailed preface, he reveals what drew him to this subject and the bumpy route he took to launch the project and, ultimately, record this album.

The new production of Here Lies Love began previews at the Broadway Theatre in New York City in June, ahead of an official opening night on July 20. Tony Award winner Alex Timbers (developed and directed by) and Olivier Award nominee Annie-B Parson (choreography) reunite with Byrne (concept, music, and lyrics) and Fatboy Slim (music) to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway, continuing a ten-plus year collaboration on the project. Tom Gandey and J Pardo contribute additional music. Here Lies Love is produced on Broadway by Hal Luftig, Patrick Catullo, Diana DiMenna for Plate Spinner Productions, Clint Ramos, and Jose Antonio Vargas. The staging at the Broadway Theatre transforms the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors. A wide variety of standing and seating options are available throughout the theater’s reconstructed space. The producers of Here Lies Love said, “As a team of binational American producers—Filipinos among us—we are thrilled to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway. We welcome everyone to experience this singularly exuberant piece of theater. The history of the Philippines is inseparable from the history of the United States, and as both evolve, we cannot think of a more appropriate time to stage this show. See you on the dance floor!”