Natalie Mendoza on Healing After Spider-Man & Heating Up the Dance Floor in London’s Here Lies Love

Amid a busy fall season in London for musicals, Natalie Mendoza’s powerful performance as Imelda Marcos in the European premiere of Here Lies Love at the National Theatre stands apart. Mendoza had a short-lived stint as Arachne in the original Broadway incarnation of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark when she suffered a concussion early in previews and had to depart the show—all of which makes her current acclaim doubly sweet. The gifted Australian performer spoke to Broadway.com from her dressing room about looking forwards as well as back, taking time off, and what it’s like to be in the middle of a disco floor playing Imelda Marcos.

It’s great to see you back on a stage, and in London no less. How does it feel to be leading the Here Lies Love company?
This is about so much more than playing a lead role for me. The entire experience has been quite profound. After the Spider-Man experience happened, I was basically taking a sabbatical at a monastery in the States without a laptop or a phone and thinking, “What’s next? Maybe I’ll become a meditation teacher.” I returned to L.A. and happened to be going through my junk mail—which I never do—and lo and behold there was an email from the casting person at the National Theatre. It was just one of those freak timings.

Wow, how amazing is that?
The request was for me to come straight to the final auditions in London in a few days, so I arrived completely jetlagged and with no voice and had barely been speaking for a year, let alone singing, because I’d been at this monastery. And now here I am on a disco floor playing Imelda Marcos: that’s a pretty strong message from the universe!

What was going through your mind during the audition?
After Spider-Man, it took me a while to regain my confidence, and yet there I was in that moment forced to channel the confidence. I went to Florence straight after my audition and by the time I got to Italy, I had an email telling me they were offering me the role.

Did you see Here Lies Love when it was at the Public Theater in New York?
I had an opportunity to go and watch it before I came to London to rehearse but I decided not to. I like approaching roles with a fresh eye and ear and I didn’t want to be influenced. I’m really glad I didn’t see it, actually, because it meant that everything was new and that we were really allowed to create as opposed to recreate.

Did you know much about Imelda Marcos’ life and career?
I had a general idea—that she had a lot of shoes [laughs] and that sort of thing, but it was pretty skin-deep. What’s great is that [co-composer] David Byrne brought over practically an entire library so I read a lot about Imelda and her upbringing and what was interesting was that Filipinos are quite split in their opinion about her: it’s not all bad by any means.

What do you think about the arrival of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim into the world of musical theater?
I think it takes a particular kind of person who has a real respect for theater and the craft of theater. You have to be able to surrender your ego if you’re going to step into the world of musical theater and be able to admit what you don’t know about and then be ready to learn: You have to honor the art form.

People have been comparing this musical to Evita, which just finished up a run in London.
I didn’t see that production, but I saw it in New York with Ricky Martin and it’s such a great show. There are moments where we do reference it with a little wink at the audience. Alex [Timbers, director] is just so clever, there’s nothing he does by accident—though Imelda herself strongly disliked being compared to Eva Peron!

Has this experience added to your sense of healing, post Spider-Man?
There are some songs in this show that are very emotional for me—not that they were written for me, but somehow they feel as if they could have been. The moment in “Star and Slave” where Imelda sort of gathers her strength and decides to come back and enter the world again, I can really relate to that sense of pulling everything together and just stepping out and taking that risk. This whole thing has been a big test for me from the audition onward.

Have you been tempted to write about your time with Spider-Man?
No, it would be too painful for me, to be honest. I gave my heart to that show, and it was just such a strange experience.

Well, as the expression goes, you’ve come a long way.
[Laughs.] It’s been quite surreal going from a monkish existence to standing under a disco ball. During tech for Here Lies Love I remember thinking, “This is completely insane—in the best way possible.” The way this has confirmed my life as an artist has been huge for me.