The American Federation of Musicians Local 802, a labor union, which represents Broadway musicians, is objecting to the use of pre-recorded, instrumental tracks instead of a live band in David Byrne and DJ Fatboy Slim‘s forthcoming stage production, Here Lies Love.
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The production of Here Lies Love violates its Broadway League contract, according to the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, which requires all musicals at a Broadway theater employ at least 19 musicians.
Byrne and the team behind Here Lies Love, responded to the opposition to the more unconventional scoring of the show and said that it is not meant to be a “traditional” production.
“’Here Lies Love’ is not a traditional Broadway musical,” said Byrne in a statement. “The music is drawn outside of the traditional musical genre. The performance of the live vocals to pre-recorded, artificial tracks is paramount to its artistic concept. Production has ripped out the seats in the theater and built a dance floor. There is no longer a proscenium stage. The Broadway Theatre has been transformed into a nightclub, with every theatergoer immersed in the experience. In many ways, ‘Here Lies Love’ is pioneering this kind of dance club track-act immersion on Broadway.”
The statement continued, “Broadway must create space for boundary-pushing creative work. Broadway is also the venue for a well-conceived, high-quality show that highlights the valued traditions of specific cultures whose stories have never been on its stages. ‘Here Lies Love’ does not believe in artistic gatekeepers. ‘Here Lies Love’ believes in a Broadway for everyone, where new creative forms push the medium and create new traditions and audiences.”
Here Lies Love was first conceptualized more than a decade ago to be performed to prerecorded tracks, according to Adrian Bryan-Brown, a spokesman for the production. “This is part of the karaoke genre inherent to the musical and the production concept,” said Bryan-Brown. “The music for ‘Here Lies Love’ was inspired by the phenomena of track acts, which allowed club audiences to keep dancing, much like this production aims to do.”
The original production of Here Lies Love, which debuted off-Broadway in 2013, drew praise for its dance-floor-style stage setup. Here Lies Love follows the early life of the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. The show continued with runs in London and Seattle, in 2015 and 2017, respectively, before Byrne and Fatboy Slim began working on bringing the production to Broadway in 2023.
After a month of previews, beginning on June 17, Here Lies Love is set to officially open on July 20 and will star Jose Llana as Ferdinand Marcos and Conrad Ricamora as Ninoy Aquino, who both starred in the original 2013 production, along with Arielle Jacobs at Imelda Marcos.
Photo: Jody Rogac / Grandstand Media
