Latest news with #Luigi:TheMusical
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Opinion - The most psychotic musical since ‘Sweeney Todd' — and why America needs it
Luigi Mangione is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in broad daylight. A clean shot. No hesitation. Very soon, he'll sing about the brutal act in a San Francisco musical. I say: Good. 'Luigi: The Musical' is absurd, possibly sociopathic — and yet somehow entirely defensible. In fact, in this grotesque, camp-addled culture of ours, it might be the most honest piece of art produced all year. Not because murder is funny. Not because the justice system is a joke. But because we now live in an age where satire is the last viable truth-delivery system. Much of journalism is corporate. Novels are afraid. Late-night comedy is neutered. You want truth? Put it in a musical. Wrap it in sequins. And give it jazz hands. Satire has always been the most ruthlessly efficient scalpel. Aristophanes mocked imperial war. Jonathan Swift proposed devouring Irish children. George Orwell, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Vonnegut — they didn't protest. They staged freak shows. Molière shredded hypocrisy in powdered wigs. Charles Dickens dragged Victorian England through the gutter it tried to ignore. Joseph Heller turned bureaucratic madness into 'Catch-22.' Before his comedy went off a cliff, George Carlin stood on stage and tore down empire with a smirk. With 'Four Lions,' a pitch-black comedy about incompetent jihadists, Chris Morris made terrorism absurd. Before that, he had already terrified the British establishment with 'Brass Eye,' a fake news satire so savage it tricked members of Parliament into denouncing fictional drugs on air. Trey Parker made everything absurd, or at least appear absurd. From Mormonism ('The Book of Mormon') to war propaganda ('Team America') to the bloated theater of American politics and celebrity culture ('South Park'), nothing was sacred — and that was the point. Satire doesn't whisper; it slaps. It offends. It remembers what the real world would rather forget. 'Luigi' stands firmly in that lineage — not in spite of the outrage it invites, but because of it. What are we really so scandalized by? The idea of a murderer with a musical number? Please. We've been there before: 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Chicago,' 'Heathers,' 'Assassins.' We have clapped for John Wilkes Booth. We have cheered for razor blades and ricin. What bothers people about 'Luigi' isn't the violence. It's the contemporaneity — the fact that it's still too soon and the wound hasn't scabbed yet. This character, the corporate assassin-turned-accidental folk hero, feels dangerously plausible. Deep down, we know the real absurdity isn't the musical. It is the world that created such a man. We live in a culture that glamorizes sociopathy but gets offended when it's reflected back. Netflix ran 'Dahmer.' You can now buy 'American Psycho' mugs, t-shirts and beanies. 'The Sopranos' has a wine label. Real-life cartel hitmen share their 'wisdom' on TikTok. And yet, when a fringe theater group stages a smart, cynical satire about a real-life killing, we're told it's 'too far'? Get real. 'Luigi' doesn't play by prestige rules. It's too camp. Too gaudy. Too loud. It isn't Oscar-bait. It's black box theater with blood under its nails. And that's why it matters. It's not Netflix. It's not Hulu. It's not a limited series you can binge and forget. It's theater. And theater — real theater — makes you sit with it. The show is Gulag humor for the Uber Eats generation. It weaponizes the ludicrous, stitches viral violence to choreography, turns cellmates like Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried into Greek chorus figures, and mocks our collective appetite for the borderline insane. 'Luigi'isn't glorifying Mangione. It's not trying to humanize him. It's trying to indict us. The audience. The algorithm. The economy of attention that turns killers into content. The culture that made a young man with a gun a trending topic before the body hit the pavement. This is a country where mass shooters get Wikipedia pages before their victims get autopsied. Where headlines blur into hashtags. Where the line between infamy and influence disappeared sometime around 2014. In that context, 'Luigi' isn't satire. It's realism. But there's a deeper tragedy here — not in the subject matter, but in the medium. Theater is dying — with its empty seats, aging donors and young people who'd rather scroll through cat videos, theater is losing the war for attention, and fast. This makes 'Luigi' both timely and, in some ways, necessary. Perhaps it's too campy. Perhaps it's too crass. Maybe it turns a murderer into a meme with a melody. But you know what? It gets people off their screens. It gets them out of their apartments. It gets them into a room with other humans, watching a live act of provocation unfold in real time. That used to be called art. Now it's called a liability. 'Luigi' won't win prestigious prizes. It might not even last its full run without protests. But it belongs. Theater isn't supposed to be sacred. It's supposed to be a mirror. Sometimes cracked, but always honest. So let them sing. Mangione won't be the last killer to dance under a spotlight. He's just the first one to do it with a chorus line and a cellmate named Diddy. John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
The most psychotic musical since ‘Sweeney Todd' — and why America needs it
Luigi Mangione is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in broad daylight. A clean shot. No hesitation. Very soon, he'll sing about the brutal act in a San Francisco musical. I say: Good. 'Luigi: The Musical' is absurd, possibly sociopathic — and yet somehow entirely defensible. In fact, in this grotesque, camp-addled culture of ours, it might be the most honest piece of art produced all year. Not because murder is funny. Not because the justice system is a joke. But because we now live in an age where satire is the last viable truth-delivery system. Much of journalism is corporate. Novels are afraid. Late-night comedy is neutered. You want truth? Put it in a musical. Wrap it in sequins. And give it jazz hands. Satire has always been the most ruthlessly efficient scalpel. Aristophanes mocked imperial war. Jonathan Swift proposed devouring Irish children. George Orwell, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Vonnegut — they didn't protest. They staged freak shows. Molière shredded hypocrisy in powdered wigs. Charles Dickens dragged Victorian England through the gutter it tried to ignore. Joseph Heller turned bureaucratic madness into 'Catch-22.' Before his comedy went off a cliff, George Carlin stood on stage and tore down empire with a smirk. With 'Four Lions,' a pitch-black comedy about incompetent jihadists, Chris Morris made terrorism absurd. Before that, he had already terrified the British establishment with 'Brass Eye,' a fake news satire so savage it tricked members of Parliament into denouncing fictional drugs on air. Trey Parker made everything absurd, or at least appear absurd. From Mormonism ('The Book of Mormon') to war propaganda ('Team America') to the bloated theater of American politics and celebrity culture ('South Park'), nothing was sacred — and that was the point. Satire doesn't whisper; it slaps. It offends. It remembers what the real world would rather forget. 'Luigi' stands firmly in that lineage — not in spite of the outrage it invites, but because of it. What are we really so scandalized by? The idea of a murderer with a musical number? Please. We've been there before: 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Chicago,' 'Heathers,' 'Assassins.' We have clapped for John Wilkes Booth. We have cheered for razor blades and ricin. What bothers people about 'Luigi' isn't the violence. It's the contemporaneity — the fact that it's still too soon and the wound hasn't scabbed yet. This character, the corporate assassin-turned-accidental folk hero, feels dangerously plausible. Deep down, we know the real absurdity isn't the musical. It is the world that created such a man. We live in a culture that glamorizes sociopathy but gets offended when it's reflected back. Netflix ran 'Dahmer.' You can now buy 'American Psycho' mugs, t-shirts and beanies. 'The Sopranos' has a wine label. Real-life cartel hitmen share their 'wisdom' on TikTok. And yet, when a fringe theater group stages a smart, cynical satire about a real-life killing, we're told it's 'too far'? Get real. 'Luigi' doesn't play by prestige rules. It's too camp. Too gaudy. Too loud. It isn't Oscar-bait. It's black box theater with blood under its nails. And that's why it matters. It's not Netflix. It's not Hulu. It's not a limited series you can binge and forget. It's theater. And theater — real theater — makes you sit with it. The show is Gulag humor for the Uber Eats generation. It weaponizes the ludicrous, stitches viral violence to choreography, turns cellmates like Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried into Greek chorus figures, and mocks our collective appetite for the borderline insane. 'Luigi'isn't glorifying Mangione. It's not trying to humanize him. It's trying to indict us. The audience. The algorithm. The economy of attention that turns killers into content. The culture that made a young man with a gun a trending topic before the body hit the pavement. This is a country where mass shooters get Wikipedia pages before their victims get autopsied. Where headlines blur into hashtags. Where the line between infamy and influence disappeared sometime around 2014. In that context, 'Luigi' isn't satire. It's realism. But there's a deeper tragedy here — not in the subject matter, but in the medium. Theater is dying — with its empty seats, aging donors and young people who'd rather scroll through cat videos, theater is losing the war for attention, and fast. This makes 'Luigi' both timely and, in some ways, necessary. Perhaps it's too campy. Perhaps it's too crass. Maybe it turns a murderer into a meme with a melody. But you know what? It gets people off their screens. It gets them out of their apartments. It gets them into a room with other humans, watching a live act of provocation unfold in real time. That used to be called art. Now it's called a liability. 'Luigi' won't win prestigious prizes. It might not even last its full run without protests. But it belongs. Theater isn't supposed to be sacred. It's supposed to be a mirror. Sometimes cracked, but always honest. So let them sing. Mangione won't be the last killer to dance under a spotlight. He's just the first one to do it with a chorus line and a cellmate named Diddy. John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life.
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Luigi Mangione musical opening in San Francisco
A satirical play based on UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione will debut next month in San Francisco. "Luigi: The Musical" is a comedy show centered on Mangione, 26, the Ivy League graduate accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, in December outside a Hilton hotel in New York City. The show's website calls it a "campy, surreal, funny" and "emotionally honest" take on the cultural fascination surrounding Mangione's case that imagines him "sharing a prison with real-life inmates Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean 'Diddy' Combs." On the play's Instagram account, the actor playing Mangione is shown singing a line about the events that led up to his arrest that goes, "flash those pearly whites, there were cameras there that night, and that's what let the police take me in." The 60-minute show will debut at Taylor Street Theater on June 13. Tickets for its entire run are currently sold out, but more dates will be announced soon. The creators of the show clarified that it was "not a celebration of violence of any kind" or intended to send a message about the "ongoing legal matter." "Our hearts go out to the family of Brian Thompson, and we acknowledge the pain and complexity surrounding this case," they wrote on the show's website. The satirical show will instead explore "deeper cultural questions" about why Mangione has been celebrated by some and ask why Americans have become disillusioned by institutions like "healthcare, tech and Hollywood." "Our hope is that Luigi: the Musical makes people laugh---and think. We're not here to make moral proclamations. We're here to explore, with humor and heart, how it feels to live through a time when the systems we're supposed to trust have stopped feeling trustworthy," the show's website says. Mangione has gotten praise on some corners of the left for allegedly killing the healthcare executive. The suspect's supporters on social media have argued that Thompson's murder was morally justified because of the resentment people feel towards America's healthcare industry. Mangione's supporters have raised over $967,000 for his legal defense fund in the past five months. Mangione pleaded not guilty last week to federal charges of stalking, murder through a firearm, and other firearms offenses during an arraignment hearing. Federal prosecutors indicated last week that they intend to seek the death penalty. Fox News' Adam Sabes contributed to this article.
Newsweek
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Luigi Mangione Musical Sells Out
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A musical inspired by alleged murderer Luigi Mangione is set to premiere next month and tickets for the show have already completely sold out. Newsweek has reached out to Luigi: The Musical outside of regular working hours via email for comment. Why It Matters Mangione, 26, is accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in Manhattan in December 2024. He is charged with 11 counts, including first-degree murder "in furtherance of an act of terrorism," two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of stalking and a firearms offensive. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges as well as terrorism charges, with federal prosecutors declaring their intent to seek the death penalty. Since his arrest, the 26-year-old has become the subject of feverish internet discourse and has been upheld by social media users as everything from a fashion icon to a martyr and a sex symbol. Mangione has gained significant support from some people, many of whom view his alleged actions as a stand against the health insurance industry, with supporters publicly calling for "Free Luigi." Luigi Mangione appears at a hearing for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 21 in New York City. Luigi Mangione appears at a hearing for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 21 in New York City. Curtis Means - Pool/Getty Images What To Know Luigi: The Musical will debut on June 13 in San Francisco. The musical is described as a "comedy," in a synopsis on its website, which also notes that "this show is not a celebration of violence of any kind, nor is it an attempt to pass judgement on an ongoing legal matter." Rather, the musical "uses satire to ask deep cultural questions," including why the case struck such a chord with so many people and why Luigi did Luigi become an internet folk hero. Currently, there are five dates of the musical listed on the website, all of which are sold out. The play will be held at the Taylor Street Theatre and was announced in an Instagram post on April 9. It will run for 60 minutes and is billed as being suitable for those 16 years and older. The musical has been created by songwriter Arielle Johnson and director Nova Bradford. It will feature original music from Johnson and Bradford, performed by the pianist Dani Marci. Two of Mangione's fellow inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn—Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is awaiting a May trial in his sex trafficking case, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled co-founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence—also appear as characters in the musical. Jonny Stein will portray Mangione, while Janée Lucas will play Combs and André Margatini will play Fried. It bears potential similarities with the famous 1975 musical, Chicago, a satire on the criminal justice system and the concept of a "celebrity criminal," which features Roxie Hart, a fictional character based on the real-life accused murderer, Beulah Annan. The synopsis for Luigi: The Musical states that "our characters reflect three institutions of modern disillusionment: healthcare, tech, and Hollywood. Each represents a pillar of American life where public trust has eroded and where people increasingly feel betrayed, exploited, or abandoned." What People Are Saying Luigi: The Musical, in a synopsis shared on the play's website: "Our hope is that Luigi: The Musical makes people laugh---and think. We're not here to make moral proclamations. We're here to explore, with humor and heart, how it feels to live through a time when the systems we're supposed to trust have stopped feeling trustworthy." What Happens Next? More dates of the play are set to be announced soon
