When the creators of the Hunter S. Thompson musical finally visited his estate

Washington Post

5 hours ago

As the creative force behind 'The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical,' Joe Iconis had been dreaming up the gonzo journalist's living room for the better part of two decades when he ventured to Colorado this past April and stepped foot in his cabin.
Still inhabited by Thompson's widow, Anita, the home was in many ways exactly as the idiosyncratic author left it when he took his own life there in February 2005 at age 67. Stacks of books Thompson intended to read were seemingly left untouched. Masks of Richard M. Nixon, Thompson's self-declared nemesis, were hanging on the walls. The family's peacocks still roamed the space. Taped to the fridge, a note in Thompson's handwriting read, 'Never call 911. Never. This means you. HST.'
'To walk into the actual room was like nothing I have ever, ever experienced,' Iconis recalls. 'It felt like I was walking into my own script.'
After premiering at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse in 2023, the bonkers biomusical is back for a production at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, that runs through July 13.
Featuring music and lyrics by 'Be More Chill' composer Iconis and a book co-written by Iconis and Gregory S. Moss, the show was penned without the rights to any of Thompson's works (as its purposely cumbersome title indicates). But with that trip to Thompson's Owl Farm estate, and the blessing of Anita and others in nearby Aspen who knew the renegade writer, 'The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical' suddenly became spiritually — if not legally — authorized.
'It speaks volumes of Joe as a composer and a writer that he was forbidden from using any of Hunter's actual writings but he found Hunter's voice, and folks who knew him feel like it did,' says George Salazar, who plays attorney and activist Oscar 'Zeta' Acosta in the musical. 'That is also what Hunter's writing was all about. It read chaotic, but there was deep intention and passion and purpose behind all of it.'
Commissioned in 2008 by La Jolla to pen a musical based on Thompson's life, Iconis spent years writing the show under the assumption that a financier would inevitably materialize with the money to secure the necessary rights. But around 2016, Iconis says, the Thompson estate made it clear that such clearance was out of the show's price range.
That meant Iconis had to excise any excerpts from Thompson's writing and all references to events only documented in his books, including 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' and 'Hell's Angels.' What Iconis could do, however, was depict the widely reported details of Thompson's life and conduct his own research.
'It was really scary,' Iconis says. 'But the amazing thing was that it forced me to not be able to use his language as a crutch. It forced me to actually get to the heart of everything I was trying to say at every single moment and have the word choices be 100 percent intentional.'
Thus Iconis embarked on a years-long quest to evoke Thompson from afar. But when Iconis and his cast traveled to Aspen to perform songs from the show at Wheeler Opera House, Anita extended an invitation for the musical's entire traveling party — more than a dozen actors and other collaborators — to visit Owl Farm.
It was an invitation Iconis accepted with trepidation. Anita, he understood, was concerned that the show would depict her late husband as a drug-crazed caricature and lose sight of his transcendence on the page. Was it worth opening up this unabashedly unlicensed endeavor to such scrutiny?
'For the life of the development of the show, I had never spoken to anyone directly connected with Hunter,' Iconis says. 'I didn't want anyone saying to me, 'Hunter would never do that.' And then the bigger part of it, really, was I didn't want anyone who knew him or who was associated with him to tell me that they hated it.'
A pair of videos filmed during the visit capture Anita's approval. The first one — filmed after a young girl staying at Owl Farm suggested that Iconis play Thompson's piano — shows the composer tapping the keys to the show's rousing finale, 'Kaboom,' while his cast sings along. In the second, an emotional Anita subsequently gifts Iconis a necklace adorned with Thompson's gonzo fist emblem. 'Thank you,' she says, 'for keeping Hunter's spirit alive in such a beautiful way.'
And Anita was far from the only person who knew Thompson to lend her expertise. Salazar and Jason SweetTooth Williams, the actor who plays illustrator Ralph Steadman in the show, both picked the brain of DJ Watkins, an Aspen art dealer and documentarian well versed in Thompson's story. Grabbing drinks at J-Bar, Thompson's longtime watering hole of choice, the cast struck up conversations with other folks who relayed their Thompson tales.
'It made it so much more real,' Williams says. 'Suddenly we weren't playing at something. Now, we're getting a chance to become something that we've actually experienced.'
When the concert arrived, Iconis still wondered how Anita would perceive numbers highlighting the less-flattering aspects of Thompson's chaotic life. But after the show, she gifted him a bouquet of six-feet-tall peacock feathers, which he still has in his home. In an email to The Washington Post, Anita pushed back against a song that depicts Thompson as an absentee father but expressed overarching admiration for the cast and creative team.
'I'm sure Hunter would love the fact that such talented artists performers have devoted a part of their life to celebrating his extraordinary legacy,' she wrote. 'I just love the cast of the musical for using their talent and energy to celebrate a beautiful unique important American writer, whose work is relevant and helps readers understand this crazy world we live in 2025.'
Asked about the musical remaining 'unauthorized,' she added: 'It appears that being required to use [Iconis's] words is what makes the musical a success.' (The executor of Thompson's literary estate did not respond to requests for comment.)
Iconis subsequently tweaked the script to include details from the visit. A line in which Thompson marvels at the beauty that surrounds Owl Farm — 'The mountains look like waves to me, just slow moving' — was uttered by Anita. After Anita cut up grapefruits for her guests, Iconis added a line in which Thompson's son mentions her doing just that.
In a mixed review, Washington Post theater critic Naveen Kumar praised Iconis's 'propulsive and occasionally catchy' score but critiqued the show's cradle-to-grave ambition. Although Iconis, a 2019 Tony nominee for 'Be More Chill,' hopes the musical has a future beyond its Signature run — perhaps on Broadway — the Aspen experience already marked a culmination of sorts for his journey into Thompson's headspace.
'For the actual human beings who knew that guy to like what we're doing, and feel like it accurately represents him?' Iconis says. 'F--- everything else.'
Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. sigtheatre.org.
Dates: Through July 13.
Prices: $47-$112.