Luigi Mangione And His Musical
By Bob Small
From Assassins to Chicago to Sweeney Todd, there is a history of “bloody” musicals. Previously, many of the world’s best-known operas focused on murderers. Bluebeard’s Castle, Lucretia Borgia, Lulu, Macbeth, and Othello are just a few of the better-known names. Somehow, adding music to the tale gives it another dimension, if not making it more palatable.
“Luigi” which features Luigi Mangione and includes the characters of non-murderers Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean “Diddy” Combs, is set in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where all three were housed. This musical premiered on June 13t
Let me share a rather noble sentiment from the final song, “every single human being’s life has worth / so I’ll shoot everybody until there’s peace on Earth.”
The last sentence of the article is worded perfectly “To see the system at work means becoming a witness, and becoming a witness means being, on some level, implicated in the system, for good or for ill. “
This musical that Luigi has become an unwitting “star” of Yep, the Luigi Mangione musical is here , comes with more immediacy than most other works. Should this be out before the trial begins. Just saying.
This work was created by four stand-up comedians. Whether we can expect it on the East Coast is yet to be determined though we think that’s a safe bet.
Nova Bradford, one of the creators of this musical says “We’re not valorizng any of these characters and we’re not trivializing any of their actions or alleged actions.
Lily Janiak, Theater Critic, for the San Francisco Chronicle, has a “killer” review.
Towards the end of the review , though, she quotes a very effective line “I wanted them to understand what it feels like when someone else gets to decide if you live or die.” This brings us back to why an alleged murderer has such a wide swath of public sympathy.
See also; The Battle to Define Luigi Mangione Takes Center Stage
Maybe one of our Delco Theaters that regularly runs musicals, The Media Theatre or Swarthmore Players Club can run it this Fall, so we can judge for ourselves,
