Furor has erupted over the world premiere of “Luigi the Musical” at the tiny Taylor Street Theatre in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
The show quickly made national headlines, with a story in the New York Post, a mention on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and a TV news crew from KPIX setting up a camera outside the theater for opening night on Friday, June 13. With the kind of publicity few new plays at 49-seat theaters would dare dream of, it instantly sold out its initial run and — just hours before hitting the stage — announced an additional July date at the Independent.
If only the show itself could justify the hype, bringing national attention to an often underappreciated Bay Area theater scene. Unfortunately, it just isn’t any good.
But the very existence of a musical about Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the frenzy it’s sparked, are telling all the same. “Luigi the Musical” has lessons for the state of theater, and it suggests other, better storytelling possibilities around the collective rage at our for-profit healthcare system for which Mangione has become a symbol…