“We needed every single step of the way to get us to Broadway. And that entire process took almost 13 years,” reveals David Korins of the long journey to bring “Here Lies Love” to Broadway. From a workshop in Massachusetts, to productions in Seattle, London, and New York, the scenic designer refined his concept for the immersive disco musical that would see audiences dancing inside of, and moving through, his nightclub set. “It wasn’t a concept that was layered on top of the show,” explains Korins, “It was literally baked into the idea of the show.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
“Here Lies Love” is a musical from David Byrne and Fatboy Slim which charts the rise and fall of Filipino politician Imelda Marcos. Korins completely reconceived the interior of the grand Broadway Theatre as a discotheque, gutting the seats in the orchestra to make way for a dance floor, anchoring a 60,000 pound steel structure through the floor, creating elevated “ringside” seating, and crafting platforms that wove their way up into the Mezzanine.
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“Technically speaking, it was by far the most ambitious and complicated show, not just in my career, but that I’ve ever actually seen,” admits Korins. “We didn’t just break the fourth wall, we obliterated it.”
Because the performance happens all around the audience on a series of moving stage platforms, viewers are in essence cast as players in the story. They might be wedding guests, party revelers, or constituents who ultimately feel betrayed by Marcos’ martial law policies. “We probably spent over a thousand hours easily dealing with engineers and probably thousands of hours dealing with architects just to make sure that it was all safe,” says Korins. The ever-morphing set affected everything from quick change locations, to front of house procedures, to actors’ traffic patterns as the line between audience and performers blurred. A whopping 38 floor plans were permitted, since each shift of stage platforms moved the standing audience around and necessitated a brand new fire exit strategy.
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The one-of-a-kind set allowed for unique presentations of scenes, such as an actor delivering a line from the middle of the Mezzanine towards a scene partner down on the dance floor. “Theater is all about story and all about emotion. And when you get that kind of distance and that kind of tension over that distance, the storytelling is extraordinary,” describes Korins. His designs facilitated the inclusion of everyone in the audience within the story, making emotional moments like the “God Draws Straight” finale resonate beyond what would be capable with a typical Broadway show. “It really included everyone in an incredibly dynamic way,” says Korins, “that only happens with that kind of scale.”
“Here Lies Love” marks Korins’ fourth Tony nomination, after scoring previous bids for “Hamilton,” “War Paint” and “Beetlejuice.” The recognition makes him incredibly emotional. “This is where I made my career. I do a lot of other things…but I started my career in the theater and I will continue to work in the theater forever. And this is my home, this is my community,” states the designer. “For it to be remembered talks a lot about the way that it penetrated the market,” he says, noting that it closed many months prior to nominations. “It is one of those shows, and I can count those shows on less than five fingers, where people come up to me frequently and say, ‘it’s the most incredible experience I’ve ever had in the theater, period.’ And they say that a lot. So this one in particular is very, very sweet.”