Here Lies Love, the musical about Imelda Marcos that David Byrne developed with Fatboy Slim, is ending its Broadway run at the end of this month. After 150 performances, the final show is on Sunday, November 26, the production announced today (November 7).
The show’s producers shared a statement about the closing. “Artistic excellence can be achieved. But the reality is, succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit–it also means creating the audience for it,” they wrote in part, continuing, “And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.”
In the weeks leading up to its premiere, the American Federation of Musicians’ Local 802 publicly opposed the use of pre-recorded tracks as part of the production’s setup, which is designed to suggest the experience of a nightclub. Byrne and the producers claimed that the lack of live musicians was “part of the karaoke genre inherent to the musical and the production concept.“ The union and Here Lies Love eventually reached a new hiring agreement before previews began in June.
Here Lies Love opened after nearly a month of previews on July 20, a full decade after its first Off-Broadway stint at New York’s Public Theater. It’s since been produced in London and Seattle, and according to a press release, Here Lies Love is reportedly in talks for stints in Japan and Australia. Byrne and Fatboy Slim released their Here Lies Love concept album in 2010, but plans for a Broadway cast recording have not been announced.
