SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — Episode 1879 — Pictured: Emil Wakim as Luigi Mangione during the “Jury Duty” sketch on Saturday, March 29, 2025 — (Photo by: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO – A new musical is coming to San Francisco, one singing the highs and lows of an imagined prison life scenario of accused CEO-killer, Luigi Mangione.
“Luigi: the Musical” will premiere on Friday the 13th in San Francisco in June. According to the musical’s creators, all five scheduled shows at the Taylor Street Theater have already sold out, though organizers said on the musical’s website that more shows will be scheduled.
The story is about Mangione, Sam Bankman Fried, and Sean “Diddy” Combs sharing a prison cell.
The three main characters represent major industries in society: healthcare, tech, and “Hollywood.”
“While the setup is absurd, it’s also rooted in a strange truth: these three men were indeed incarcerated at the same facility. That unlikely fact sparked our team’s creative exploration,” organizers said.
However, the new play is not without controversy. “Luigi: the Musical” released a statement saying the story is not to glorify any sort of violence or to pass judgment on the legal case, nor does it condone sexual assault or pedophilia “in any form.”
The creators said the purpose of the hour-long musical is to ask societal questions like why Mangione has “become a kind of folk hero in certain corners of the internet” and is a critique of him, Bankman-Fried, and Combs.
Other questions posed by the creators include why this case has struck a chord with so many people and what this phenomenon says about the country’s institutions, questions that could be analyzed further through the satirical nature of the musical, they said.
“This musical, in fact, serves as a critique of these men and the institutions that enabled them…by placing these forces in one absurd prison cell, we’re offering a mirror to our moment: campy, surreal, and funny, but also emotionally honest,” the creators said.
Additionally, the creators said their hearts go out to Thompson’s family and that they acknowledge the pain and complexity that surrounds the case.
Who is Luigi Mangione?
The backstory:
Mangione is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate and valedictorian facing New York, Pennsylvania, and federal charges tied to the death of Brian Thompson, then-CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Penn., a few days after Thompson’s death.
In New York and federally, he is being charged with murder, pleading not guilty to both.
Thompson was fatally shot in the back near the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan on Dec. 4, where he was set to take part in the company’s shareholder conference.
Ammo casings left at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” written on them, a phrase critics use to describe insurance company tactics.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she was directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
Dig deeper:
Records show both Combs and Mangione remain behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn (MDC Brooklyn), a federal jail in New York.
Bankman-Fried was once housed at MDC Brooklyn but has since been transferred to a facility in Mendota, Calif., Fox Business reported.
Bankman-Fried was the founder of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform. In 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, stealing over $11 billion, according to prosecutors.
Combs is facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges after he allegedly physically and sexually abused victims for over a decade. He has pleaded not guilty to his charges and is set to go to trial on Monday.
What’s next:
While the creative team has said they plan on adding more shows in the future, it’s unclear how many and if they plan to perform the musical in other locations throughout the country.
KTVU has reached out to the musical creators for more information.
The Source: Previous KTVU reporting, FOX 5 New York, FOX 9 Minneapolis, FOX Business, and Federal Bureau of Prisons.