David Byrne‘s Broadway musical Here Lies Love, which he co-wrote with “Praise You” artist Fatboy Slim, will close November 26 after 33 previews and 150 performances.
In a statement, the producers said, “Succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit — it also means creating the audience for it. 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.” Or, as Variety puts it, the show suffered from “lackluster ticket sales.”
Here Lies Love is a musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. It features the first all-Filipino acting company on Broadway and broke new ground with its innovative staging. Its theater was completely redesigned to mimic a night club, with the orchestra seats removed to create a dance floor where audience members can stand among the performers.
The show will be filmed for the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and it may mount international productions in Japan and Australia.
Byrne’s previous Broadway musical production, American Utopia — in which he starred and performed — had two separate Broadway runs between 2019 and 2022 and spun off a Spike Lee-directed film.
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