Things of the past

The Broadway Theatre has lately been cursed by a parade of the ghastly: in 2019 there was a lurching musical King Kong, then in 2020 Ivo van Hove’s strange production of West Side Story, in which much of the action was hidden so far away from the audience that we could only watch it on closed-circuit video. Following that came in 2022 a whispery, acrobat-infested circus-tinged stab at The Little Prince. You will understand my trepidation when I learned the space would next be lent to a disco musical about Imelda Marcos called Here Lies Love.

In the interest of rejuvenation, or exorcism, the interior has been totally overhauled: the orchestra seats have been yanked and replaced with a dance floor and a shoulder-high raised platform that, propeller-like,...