New 'Luigi' musical depicts suspected cold-blooded killer Luigi Mangione as 'accidental folk hero'

Accused cold-blooded killer Luigi Mangione is the subject of a new musical set to premiere in San Francisco at The Exit Theater. "Luigi the Musical" is set to open on June 13 and the cast of characters will feature Magione's "celebrity" inmate peers.

Created by Nova Bradford, Arielle Johnson, André Margatini and Caleb Zeringue, the show is already sold out. The character of Mangione, per Johnson, "is dead serious about his thoughts and goals. There's something campy about the whole 'good guy with a gun' premise."

Bradford, who is also serving as the director of the project, said "One of the central ideas that we wanted to explore with this musical is this tendency for us to project meaning onto these types of figures."

The prison where Mangione is housed in New York, Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, is also the temporary home to Sean "Diddy" Combs and disgraced tech bro Sam Bankman-Fried. In the show, the creators have Bankman-Fried deliver a TED Talk from his cell. He was recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson from prison, so it's not much of a stretch.

This aided in the inspiration for the project, said Zeringue, per the San Francisco Chronicle. "These three people represent these big pillars of institutions in society that are failing in their trust: healthcare, Hollywood and then big tech," he went on to say.

Mangione is set to stand trial on federal charges after he was arrested for the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson was shot on a New York City street in December.

The creators are all old hands at stand-up comedy and know each other from that scene in San Francisco. They emphasized that they're "not valorizing any of these characters."

"We're also not trivializing any of their actions or alleged actions," Bradford said.

"Luigi the Musical," reads the show description from Exit, "is a wildly irreverent, razor-sharp comedy that imagines the true story of Luigi Mangione, the alleged corporate assassin turned accidental folk hero. With real-life cellmates Sam Bankman-Fried and Diddy by his side, Luigi navigates friendship, justice, and the absurdity of viral fame. Bold, campy, and unafraid, Luigi: the Musical is both laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly thoughtful. If you like your comedy smart and your show tunes with a criminal record, Luigi is your new favorite felony."