Here Lies Love Theatre Review by Matthew Murray

Of the characteristics that musicals and nightclubs share, perhaps the most enticing — and the most frustrating — is their tendency to be there one moment and gone the next. I’m not necessarily speaking just of their tendency to close the instance you turn your head, though that does happen, but the way they can change character in the blink of a bleary eye based on your mood, the people around you, and even the time of year. The show you see — or are a part of — tonight probably won’t be the same one you see if you go back, say, a year from now. So tread lightly, if you tread at all, back to the Millennium. Wait, sorry, that’s technically only the club-within-the-play that’s used as the unifying and energizing concept of Here Lies Love, the musical by David Byrne (concept and lyrics) and Fatboy Slim (music) that just reopened at The Public Theater following a triumphant run there last summer. But at this fast-forward evening, you won’t be able to separate the disco from the drama, partly because you’re intimately entangled in both and partly because this sumptuous-looking but wafer-thin outing would otherwise fall apart.