JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

‘Imelda Marcos, wife of late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is mainly remembered for the 3,000-odd pairs of expensive shoes the angry mob found in her palace after she fled the country in 1986. But in Here Lies Love, a musical dramatisation of her life that David Byrne and Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook have been working on since 2004, the footwear isn’t mentioned. “The story I was interested in,” states Byrne, “was more universal, revealing and profound than that of the shoes.”‘. . .Ruff Manila in MOJO.

The David Byrne-Fatboy Slim Imelda Marcos disco musical Here Lies Love will be released on 6 April 2010 on Todomundo/Nonesuch Records.

“The story I am interested in is about asking what drives a powerful person—what makes them tick? How do they make and then remake themselves? I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if—as this piece would be principally composed of clubby dance music—one could experience it in a club setting? Could one bring a ‘story’ and a kind of theater to the disco? Was that possible? If so, wouldn’t that be amazing!” —DB, from the introduction