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brian thompson
'Luigi: The Musical' Premiere Run Already Sold Out in San Francisco
"This show is not a celebration of violence of any kind, nor is it an attempt to pass judgment on an ongoing legal matter," say the producers. "Instead, Luigi: the Musical uses satire to ask deeper cultural questions."
May 02, 2025
A stage musical based on the life and actions of accused murderer Luigi Mangione, charged with killing UnitedHealth chief executive Brian Thompson earlier this year, will debut in San Francisco next month—and the run of the show featuring the high-profile case is already sold out.
Mangione—who has taken on cult status in some quarters over the brazen and cold-blooded killing that served to highlight the nation's cruel, profit-driven healthcare system—is facing a possible death sentence if found guilty on federal charges related to Thompson's murder.
"Why did a figure like Luigi become a kind of folk hero in certain corners of the internet? What does that say about how we see institutions in America today?"
The producers "Luigi: The Musical," who describe the play as a "wildly irreverant, razor-sharp comedy" about the "alleged corporate assassin turned accidental folk hero," also acknowledge how inherently controversial and provocative the show will be. According to the play's website:
This show is not a celebration of violence of any kind, nor is it an attempt to pass judgment on an ongoing legal matter. Our hearts go out to the family of Brian Thompson, and we acknowledge the pain and complexity surrounding this case.
Instead, Luigi: the Musical uses satire to ask deeper cultural questions. Why did this case strike such a chord with so many people? Why did a figure like Luigi become a kind of folk hero in certain corners of the internet? What does that say about how we see institutions in America today?
The show will run at the Taylor Street Theater in the city, premiering on June 13th for an initial two-week run. As of this writing, all shows are sold out, but new dates for an extended run are set to be announced.
Produced by Caleb Zeringue and directed by Nova Bradford, the script was written by the pair alongside Arielle Johnson and Andre Margatini. The original music and lyrics for the show were composed by Johnson and Bradford.
In the show's imagination, Mangione finds himself in a jail cell with convicted crypto-banker Sam Bankman-Fried and indicted hip-hop producer Sean "Diddy" Combs. While absurd in some ways, the origin story of the play is based on the fact that all three men were, for a period, all held at the same detention facility.
In an interview last week with the San Francisco Chronicle, Zeringue said all three men "represent these big pillars of institutions in society that are failing in their trust: healthcare, Hollywood, and then big tech."
Bradford, also speaking to the Chronicle, said that the play seeks to explore society's tendency "to project meaning onto these types of figures," but that the show is "not valorizing" any of them, nor "trivializing any of their action or alleged actions."
"Our hope is that Luigi: the Musical," say the producers in their show notes, "makes people laugh—and think. We're not here to make moral proclamations. We're here to explore, with humor and heart, how it feels to live through a time when the systems we're supposed to trust have stopped feeling trustworthy."
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Trump DOJ to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione
Calling the death penalty "an intolerably cruel and unusual punishment," one socialist writer said that the European Union should offer the alleged assassin asylum.
Apr 01, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday that she is directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case of Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
Federal prosecutors in New York City filed murder charges against Mangione in mid-December after Mangione was arrested in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was gunned down in front of a hotel in midtown Manhattan on December 4.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the country, though the company has said Mangione was never insured by them.
A grand jury in New York state indicted Mangione with first-degree murder "in furtherance of an act of terrorism" and second-degree murder, in addition to other, lesser charges also in mid-December. Mangione pleaded not guilty to those state charges, but has not entered a plea for his federal charges, according to PBS News.
"Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson—an innocent man and father of two young children—was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America," Bondi said in a statement. "After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President [Donald] Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again."
U.S. President Donald Trump, who oversaw a spate of executions carried out at an unprecedented rate during the final months of his initial administration, signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House that directs the Justice Department to seek out the death penalty in federal cases when possible.
Mangione, whose case triggered a wave of dark humor and vitriol directed at the for-profit healthcare industry, was compared to "Robin Hood" in a December intelligence report compiled by a regional intelligence center, according to The American Prospect.
In a Substack post published Tuesday, the socialist writer Carl Beijer wrote that the European Union (E.U.) must offer asylum to Mangione.
"Regardless of the merits of the case for or against Mangione, the death penalty remains an intolerably cruel and unusual punishment," wrote Beijer. "Given its commitment to using 'all available instruments' towards the abolition of capital punishment, the E.U. should publicly condemn the prosecution of Luigi Mangioni; should immediately offer him political asylum in defense of his basic right to life; and should negotiate with the U.S. Department of Justice to secure his release."
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UnitedHealth Exemplifies How the Industry Prioritizes Profit Over Care
The provider has—for good reason—become the most powerful lightning rod for patient and medical staff critiques of how private insurers operate.
Feb 01, 2025
Healthcare is big business in the United States. So big it can be hard to wrap your head around.
America’s largest healthcare company, the UnitedHealth Group, pulled in over $100 billion in revenue in just the fourth quarter of 2024 alone. For the full year, the giant’s insurance division, UnitedHealthcare, just reported record revenue of $298.2 billion.
These staggering revenue totals actually fell below investor expectations. Right after the announcement, UnitedHealth Group shares slipped 6% on the New York Stock Exchange.
The outpouring of anger after the December killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—anger not at the shooting but at the company Thompson represented—shows just how many Americans are currently suffering under our privatized healthcare system.
That tells you a lot about what’s important in the healthcare industry: profit, not care. Health insurance companies in particular can only profit by paying out less in claims than they collect in premiums. And that means denying patients coverage for the care they need.
Just outside the New York Stock Exchange, victims of our for-profit healthcare system—doctors and patients alike—recently braved freezing temperatures to call out the suffering that engineered UnitedHealth’s exorbitant earnings.
One of those demonstrators, Jenn Coffey, has been battling complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a condition so incredibly painful that it’s often called the “suicide disease.”
UnitedHealth denied her the prior authorization needed to have her critically important treatment adequately covered. “UnitedHealthcare would rather leave me in torture than grant me the peace my infusions bring,” says Coffey. “I’m asking for a life worth dignity. I’m left begging for a life worth living.”
Several other speakers shared their deeply personal experiences with a healthcare system that far too often treats patients as disposable.
Dr. Toutou Moussa Diallo, a New York-based researcher and healthcare activist, detailed how insurance denials led to subpar treatment for his broken ankle that only made the initial injury more debilitating. Nephrologist Cheryl Kunis shared the story of a patient who died after UnitedHealthcare refused to cover a PET scan of a malignant neck tumor.
These experiences amount to much more than isolated one-off incidents. The outpouring of anger after the December killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—anger not at the shooting but at the company Thompson represented—shows just how many Americans are currently suffering under our privatized healthcare system.
The ongoing campaign protesting how UnitedHealth does business began well before Thompson’s headline-grabbing killing. The Care Over Cost mobilization, led by People’s Action, has been organizing rallies protesting America’s biggest private insurers for years.
UnitedHealth has—for good reason—become the most powerful lightning rod for patient and medical staff critiques of how private insurers operate. The company’s gargantuan profits rest on decisions that regularly exploit patients at every opportunity.
Just a few snippets from recent news accounts offer a vivid picture about how UnitedHealth goes about making its billions.
UnitedHealth Group’s pharmacy benefit manager, Optum RX, marked up some cancer treatments by over 1,000%. UnitedHealthcare systematically limited access to critical treatments for children with autism to cut costs. And along with two other insurers, the company intentionally denied nursing care to patients covered by Medicare Advantage—all to maximize profit.
And how has the UnitedHealth Group been spending all its ill-gotten gains? One telling stat: UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty pocketed an astonishing $23.5 million in 2023 compensation.
As the rally in front of the New York Stock Exchange ended, protesters called on UnitedHealthcare to publicly release its claim denial rates, oppose federal tax cuts that would result in Medicaid service reductions, and end the company’s care-denying prior authorization requirements.
Those eminently reasonable demands for the company. Meanwhile, the rest of us should consider whether we want healthcare to be a tool for the public good—or just private profit.
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