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Wednesday, September 10, 2025
A musical about Luigi Mangione sells out theaters — and raises eyebrows
NPR: The UnitedHealthcare CEO's alleged killer was in the same Brooklyn jail as Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried. A satirical comedy about their jailhouse vibe is selling out theaters — and raising eyebrows.
I truly appreciate the valuable insights shared here. It reminds me of the ongoing movement many are supporting through Free Luigi, which raises awareness about justice and fairness. Discussions like these show how vital it is to stand united for truth. Everyone should take a moment to explore and support this cause.
My thoughts while reading all of this was “what… the hell?” This is what I love about theatre, you can create things out of nothing, even if its as silly as this. We’ve seen it in the past with shows like Ratatouille the musical where they took a story, that's also a meme, marketed it, and raised tons of money for Covid 19 charities. It’s amazing what some people make, whether it's for profit or to help charities, both have a similar impact, bringing more people into the theatre realm by introducing new stories, stories anyone knows, such as Lugi’s story. It’s very cool seeing this new type of work, and it’s going to be interesting seeing where it goes next after this. It could go either way to be honest, and you have to consider that, it could start getting way more political or it could stay calm or both, and its going to be very interesting to follow when the stopping point of these new works is, and what the limitations are.
This is great. I think the best way to handle serious topics is with comedy or satire or any form of humor, like how a lot of the better media about world war 2 is comedy focused rather than soul-wrenchingly serious like Jojo Rabbit or that one scene in The Producers. I think the ability to make anything “funny” to other people is one of our greatest gifts as human beings and using that gift to examine the current state of our world is just brilliant. Any of the detractors of this show are probably just haters of Mangione anyways and aren’t willing to give it a chance under the presumption that it glorifies him, even though he hasn’t been convicted yet. I think the way the NPR article describes this shows commentary on the current social climate is very interesting, focusing on how we as a culture interact with real celebrity figures in a parasocial way. Mangione being stuck in a jail cell and unable to communicate with the people that laud him as a hero is just the icing on top.
It is absolutely crazy that this is going to be on Broadway. This musical looks outrageously corny, I find most musicals corny, but this is a whole other level. I can't find any details on what the music genre is and ive found nothing which makes me guess that it is a dear evan hansen/be more chill/typical late 2010’s style of musical. Gross. And, why. Theater and performance should be used to stress the importance of an issue, which can also be executed by satirical and comedic works. I honestly just find it pretty distasteful to make any light of the Diddy controversy and his case in general when he did absolutely heinous things to children. I think this is some type of idea that should've stayed in independent theaters. No clue why Broadway is putting money into this. Not funny or creative but alas, we shouldn't expect that anymore.
I heard about this earlier this year, and I think the idea is a bit hilarious. Putting Sam Bankman-Fried, Luigi Mangione, and Sean Combs together in a theatrical setting is a recipe for a particular kind of comedic production. The absurdity of the setting in and of itself will certainly make this show interesting. Each of these trials on their own attracted massive media attention, and all of them, particularly Mangione’s, seem to be primed for controversy and further publicity. It will be curious to see how this musical is received, and to see if it makes it past San Francisco, or if it even seeks to go beyond its small black box.
6 comments:
I truly appreciate the valuable insights shared here. It reminds me of the ongoing movement many are supporting through Free Luigi, which raises awareness about justice and fairness. Discussions like these show how vital it is to stand united for truth. Everyone should take a moment to explore and support this cause.
My thoughts while reading all of this was “what… the hell?” This is what I love about theatre, you can create things out of nothing, even if its as silly as this. We’ve seen it in the past with shows like Ratatouille the musical where they took a story, that's also a meme, marketed it, and raised tons of money for Covid 19 charities. It’s amazing what some people make, whether it's for profit or to help charities, both have a similar impact, bringing more people into the theatre realm by introducing new stories, stories anyone knows, such as Lugi’s story. It’s very cool seeing this new type of work, and it’s going to be interesting seeing where it goes next after this. It could go either way to be honest, and you have to consider that, it could start getting way more political or it could stay calm or both, and its going to be very interesting to follow when the stopping point of these new works is, and what the limitations are.
This is great. I think the best way to handle serious topics is with comedy or satire or any form of humor, like how a lot of the better media about world war 2 is comedy focused rather than soul-wrenchingly serious like Jojo Rabbit or that one scene in The Producers. I think the ability to make anything “funny” to other people is one of our greatest gifts as human beings and using that gift to examine the current state of our world is just brilliant. Any of the detractors of this show are probably just haters of Mangione anyways and aren’t willing to give it a chance under the presumption that it glorifies him, even though he hasn’t been convicted yet. I think the way the NPR article describes this shows commentary on the current social climate is very interesting, focusing on how we as a culture interact with real celebrity figures in a parasocial way. Mangione being stuck in a jail cell and unable to communicate with the people that laud him as a hero is just the icing on top.
Posted by Henry Kane
It is absolutely crazy that this is going to be on Broadway. This musical looks outrageously corny, I find most musicals corny, but this is a whole other level. I can't find any details on what the music genre is and ive found nothing which makes me guess that it is a dear evan hansen/be more chill/typical late 2010’s style of musical. Gross. And, why. Theater and performance should be used to stress the importance of an issue, which can also be executed by satirical and comedic works. I honestly just find it pretty distasteful to make any light of the Diddy controversy and his case in general when he did absolutely heinous things to children. I think this is some type of idea that should've stayed in independent theaters. No clue why Broadway is putting money into this. Not funny or creative but alas, we shouldn't expect that anymore.
I heard about this earlier this year, and I think the idea is a bit hilarious. Putting Sam Bankman-Fried, Luigi Mangione, and Sean Combs together in a theatrical setting is a recipe for a particular kind of comedic production. The absurdity of the setting in and of itself will certainly make this show interesting. Each of these trials on their own attracted massive media attention, and all of them, particularly Mangione’s, seem to be primed for controversy and further publicity. It will be curious to see how this musical is received, and to see if it makes it past San Francisco, or if it even seeks to go beyond its small black box.
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