Yes, you heard that right. A musical about alleged healthcare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione is getting a musical theater take on his alleged crime and current time in jail. The hottest show in town began rehearsals two months ago, but it’s already sold out for a limited run.
Very loosely based on the current event crime of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione allegedly shooting United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 in Manhattan, the show’s producers call it “a wildly irreverent, razor-sharp comedy that imagines the true story of Luigi Mangione, the alleged corporate assassin turned accidental folk hero.”
Mangione has won fans from women and gay men alike for his stylish looks in court, and previous shirtless photos spread online. But more people support his radical act against the greedy healthcare corporations that deny claims for insurance.
Mangione was allegedly suffering from severe back pain and unable to get insurance coverage for necessary medication. He allegedly took to becoming a vigilante seeking revenge.
Since his arrest, other stories have popped up online, ranging from him having created sex videos to being bisexual. Mangione was arrested at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s while eating a hash brown after an employee identified him and called the police.
In an overreaching move by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, she said she’s seeking the death penalty for Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including first-degree murder and terrorism.
Love, murder and hash browns
Set to premiere on Friday the 13th in June, director Nova Bradford, executive producer Caleb Zeringue (who also plays a guard), and songwriter Arielle Johnson were not prepared for the sudden interest in the show.
With a similar take on criminal musicals like Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and Kanter, Ebb & Fosse’s “Chicago,” the show’s young creators are taking a lighter tone in this one-hour comic take on celebrity criminals. Yet no high-profile musical has been produced while the main character’s trials are taking place.
The show is set in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where Mangione’s real-life prison mates include Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs and Crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried (Business Insider).
Producer Zeringue told Broadway World that the idea for the show came from a conversation at the SF Eagle, the historic SoMa gay bar.
“One of the central ideas we wanted to explore is this tendency for us to project meaning onto these types of figures,” said Bradford. “It’s a show that’s very much of Twitter right now.”
Bradford added that the show does not glorify violence or the alleged crimes of its characters.
“We’re not valorizing any of these characters, and we’re also not trivializing any of their actions or alleged actions,” Bradford told Broadway World.
Good luck getting tickets. The show’s official website notes that additional performance dates may be scheduled soon, possibly at the already sold-out venue at 277 Taylor Street.
https://luigithemusical.info/
https://www.instagram.com/luigithemusical/
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