A musical celebrating accused murderer Luigi Mangione is coming.
Mangione is accused of walking up behind healthcare executive Brian Thompson in the early morning hours and shooting him in the back. Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States.
He collapsed on the sidewalk outside the Midtown Hilton at 6:45 a.m. on December 4, 2024. He was there to do his job. He left behind a wife and children who will never stop paying the price for what happened on that pavement.
And now devoted admirers are making theater out of it.
Selling tickets. Writing songs. Celebrating the moment as if it were an act of courage rather than an act of murder.
This is not satire. It is actually happening.
Written by San Francisco creators Nova Bradford and Arielle Johnson, Luigi: The Musical was funded through a crowdfunding campaign and premiered in San Francisco in June 2025 to sold-out crowds before traveling to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The show is now headed to New York City, where it will play at The Green Room 42 in Midtown starting June 15. The venue is a five-minute drive from the Hilton Hotel where Thompson was shot and killed.
The excuses are always the same. He was fighting the system. Health insurance companies are corrupt. The victim had it coming. A man is dead, and his kids are growing up without a father. A growing number of Americans are treating the accused killer as some sort of folk hero.
That should scare you, no matter what you think about health insurance.
Once you decide murder is acceptable for the right cause, that door does not close easily. Today, it's a health insurance executive. The person who decides to do this next will have their own reason. They always do.
Applauding an assassin is not a protest. It is not art.
But at this rate, the play will probably win a Tony.
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