Luigi Mangione, Diddy, and SBF walk into a jail: Wild musical about UnitedHealthcare assassination debuts in San Francisco
Truly excellent satire is like great delivery pizza: it should arrive right on time, nearly too hot to touch.
That’s certainly the case for Luigi: the Musical, a satirical comedy about — and no, you are not hallucinating — accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione, which premiered Friday in Mangione’s former home of San Francisco.
Standing in line at the Taylor Street Theater, there was a palpable crackle of excitement, and even some trepidation, in the air.
After all, it was a musical. About Luigi. The guy who (allegedly) gunned down CEO Brian Thompson in broad daylight outside a Manhattan hotel in December, using a ghost gun and bullets engraved with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “delay,” thought to be a reference to Mangione’s struggles with the healthcare industry while treating a debilitating back injury.
He hasn’t even gone to trial to face his various state and federal charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. How in the world would Luigi pull this off? And should they have even tried?
Plenty, it seemed, wanted to see the show from creators Nova Bradford, Caleb Zeringue, Arielle Johnson, and André Margatini go for it, come what may. When the musical was announced in April, it rapidly sold out and made headlines around the world. As the playbill notes, the show was front page news in Iceland before it had ever been performed.
By the time the June 13 premier rolled around, Mangione’s legend had only grown, though his meaning as a national figure remains hotly debated. The Trump administration wants to give the accused CEO-killer the death penalty, while in other quarters, the 26-year-old has become an anti-corporate folk hero, a meme object, and even a sex symbol. He’s reportedly been deluged with fan mail in jail, and he’s already been subject of multiple documentaries.
In the crowd at Luigi, opinions ran the gamut.
Tom, who asked to use only his first name, said making a musical out of Mangione’s story was a “fabulous criticism of the issues in society that lead people to commit violent acts, all things that bother me.”
Mary Lukanuski, who came to see the show from nearby Oakland, was more ambivalent.
“Street assassinations are never a good development,” she said. “That said, he is the avatar of very understandable rage at healthcare in the U.S.”
A nearby theatergoer leaned in and added that healthcare should not be for profit in America.
Another patron, Kyle Reiley, of San Francisco, said, “He was justified in his actions.”
The show was landing in a city and a state alive with militancy. For the previous week, thousands turned out to protest immigration raids in Los Angeles, prompting federal officials to send in the Marines and the National Guard in response, despite objections from state authorities.
