{"id":19210,"date":"2023-08-07T02:35:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T12:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=19210"},"modified":"2023-08-07T02:55:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T12:55:47","slug":"here-lies-love-or-just-her-lies-the-autocratic-dictatorship-of-ferdinand-and-imelda-marcos-on-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2023\/08\/07\/here-lies-love-or-just-her-lies-the-autocratic-dictatorship-of-ferdinand-and-imelda-marcos-on-broadway\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHere Lies Love,\u201d or Just \u201cHer Lies?\u201d The Autocratic Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos on Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

When People Power forced the Marcoses to flee in disgrace, Hawaii was there to soften the fall of the dictator.

Are Hawaii Filipinos eager to see how the dictatorship plays out on Broadway?

It sounds odd, but if\u00a0we apply the new Florida educational standards to the history of slavery to Filipino history, I suppose we could find one \u00a0\u201cpositive benefit\u201d of the Marcos dictatorship\u2014the authoritarian singing and the dancing of the Marcoses themselves!

But wait a minute, the history of a Filipino dictatorship funded and propped up by Reagan and Bush and the interests of the U.S. government? If it\u2019s taught at all in Florida schools–let alone any schools in the U.S. \u2014that\u2019s a paragraph at best.

But singing and dancing? We can go on for 90 minutes! It\u2019s all on display now in the new musical on Broadway based on Imelda Marcos and the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, \u201cHere Lies Love,\u201d or should that be more simply \u201cHer lies\u2026\u201d? The \u201clove\u201d part is debatable.

First, let me say I have a healthy respect for Filipino and Filipino American history from 1587 to the present, all of which are represented in my own personal and comic one-man-show \u201cEmil Amok: Lost NPR Host,\u201d which had a seven-show run Off-Off Broadway in New York in February. I\u2019m doing another iteration of the show at the San Francisco Fringe Aug, 12, 17, and 19. (Go to www.amok. com for ticket info.)

I find that history tends to give my show weight. It\u2019s so heavy, I have to make fun of it.

There\u2019s a different use of history in \u201cHere Lies\u2026\u201d which was concocted by the rock-pop icon David Byrne and Fatboy Slim.

The heavy Filipino history is just an excuse for the music and dance that\u2019s all so good, it apparently seems to make the history float away. From all reports, this is not Mel Brooks\u2019 dark comedy \u201cThe Producers\u201d and it is \u201cSpringtime for Hitler.\u201d

But this Marcos musical is no satire.

\u201cHere Lies Love\u201d is a lot more serious about its singing and dancing than you\u2019d think.

The show has a multi-talented all-Filipino cast, and until Aug. 13, it features the Filipino diva of Broadway herself, Lea Salonga.

Her performance of the song, \u201cJust Ask the Flowers,\u201d is being seen as a tribute to those imprisoned and murdered by the Marcos regime.

The tune anchors the show and maybe just the thing that singlehandedly balances the previous 80 minutes or so for its autocratic mirth and its curious subtext, the hideous martial law era of the Philippines.

As an Asian-American Filipino journalist and sometimes theatrical performer, I\u2019m interested in the use of theater as spectacle, as well as any attempt to tell an important part of the Filipino story.

I also want to be supportive of the employment of all the talented Filipino actors, dancers, and singers on display.

So without a doubt, I\u2019m going to see \u201cHere Lies Love\u201d when I get to New York later in August. And I hope you do too.

I\u2019m just curious. How does it feel to be embedded in the disco mindset of the Marcos dictatorship? And is that moral?

From the reviews I\u2019ve read, this Broadway production pulls it off, at least physically. The theater has been transformed into a Studio 54-like nightclub, where the audience can stand on stage and be immersed among the performers. Watch Imelda rise beyond her shoulder pads with a shoe joke. See Ferdinand do his thing with other women. See the assassinated Filipino hero Benigno Aquino challenge the duo.

The Playbill comes with a timeline of actual Filipino history, so if you are drunk from song and dance and are just having too much fun, the timeline should help your moral compass.

It\u2019s also a reminder that martial law was essentially a fun time just for the Marcos duo and their cronies.

For the majority of the Philippines, there was little joy in Discoville.

I know the history and covered the Philippines during Benigno Aquino\u2019s assassination in 1983. Since that time, the country has gone from \u00a0People Power toward the global trend of autocracy. Under Rodrigo Duterte, the Marcos name was rehabilitated, enabling Bong-Bong, the son of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, to become the current president.

So has enough time passed to appreciate the Marcoses\u2019 history in retrospect? Can this show have a run as long as the Marcos reign in the Philippines?

For some of the Filipino American producers\/investors of \u201cHere Lies Love,\u201d this may be the time to look at the history through a different lens. They include people like Jose Antonio Vargas, the Filipino-born American-based reporter who called attention to his undocumented status and the plight of other undocumented members of the 1.5 Filipino American generation.

For decades, the Marcos family has divided the Filipino community. Pro-Marcos, Anti-Marcos. Young, old. My father, from Marcos\u2019 province of Laoag, was Pro-Marcos. Me, I was just pro-democracy.

Will seeing the show make the U.S. Filipino community more willing to forgive the dictators?\u00a0 Do we sing about the past to embrace and forgive a new generation of Marcos leadership? That would be very Catholic, another colonial remnant.

And if you aren\u2019t Filipino and don\u2019t know Filipino history, is this your gateway invite to learn more? Or are you happy enough with humming some beautiful songs instead of learning about all the lives changed through the dictatorship\u2019s jailing, torture, and murder of thousands of people?

Benigno Aquino is the marquee name, but I think of my friend Violeta \u201cBullet\u201d Marasigan, who died in a freak car accident in 2000 in San Francisco. During martial law in the Philippines, she and her husband were among the 70,000 jailed for their anti-Marcos activism.

Perhaps, too, the show is relevant to America a year away from the 2024 election, a cautionary tale of how a fascist regime of the past looks like live. Can you imagine it happening in America now because we were all too busy singing and dancing? Forget about Nero fiddling while Rome burns, can Donald Trump sing and dance? Will we see that on Broadway? Years after the fourth indictment?

All those questions and the immersive staging make me want to see \u201cHere Lies Love.\u201d

We can argue later about what it all means, as is our mutual First Amendment right.

Now that\u2019s a contextual memory we should never forget. No one could have said boo to the Marcoses without reprisal under martial law in the Philippines.

NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on \u201cEmil Amok\u2019s Takeout,\u201d my AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>; my\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0channel; and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Catch the recordings on\u00a0www.amok.com<\/a>.

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist, commentator and storyteller. In Hawaii, he has written columns for the Star-Bulletin and the Advertiser. In Washington, DC, he was a host for NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo When People Power forced the Marcoses to flee in disgrace, Hawaii was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=300%2C188&ssl=1",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=415%2C260&ssl=1",415,260,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/marcos-and-meldy.jpeg?fit=415%2C260&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19211,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210\/revisions\/19211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}