Here Lies Love – reviews of 'wildly quirky' disco musical

What you need to know

A new disco musical, Here Lies Love, is playing at the National Theatre, London. David Byrne of Talking Heads and DJ Fatboy Slim created the show about the life of former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, which premiered off-Broadway last year.

It traces rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, from a young beauty queen courted by the would-be politician Ferdinand Marcos, to the glamorous first lady of the brutal Philippines dictator, to political pariah.

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Alex Timbers directs the show starring Natalie Mendoza as Imelda, and featuring immersive, 360-degree club-style staging including a dance floor. Runs until 8 January.

What the critics like

This transplanted off-Broadway hit is "a slick, sensory overload", says Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Seductively battered by club lighting, beats and catchy songs, you become a co-conspirator with this decadent former first lady in the disco of her imagination – it's like a dancefloor Evita.

The comparison with Evita is inescapable, but Here Lies Love is "politically cannier and sharper" about the queasy overlap between manipulative-diva worship on the musical and political stage, says Paul Taylor in The Independent. And Natalie Mendoza, in full-blooded voice, is stunning at every stage.

This pulsating pop operetta is "a camp and wildly quirky vision" of an extravagant power couple, says Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard. The immersive staging is effective and the music soon works its magic to create an intoxicating and technically inventive experience.

What they don't like

"There is no absolute stand-out tune" ("Don't Cry for Me Filipinos", as it were), though much of the music is instantly catchy, says Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph. The show doesn't quite grasp that holy grail of combining club-nite excitement with fully engrossing theatre, but it comes close.