Most Americans are alarmed by the recent rise in political violence, but Broadway appears to be entertained by it.Â
s theater hub is set to give 28-year-old alleged killer Luigi Mangione the star treatment in a satirical musical that premieres in Manhattan in June. “Luigi: The Musical” will run at a theater just miles from where Mangione allegedly gunned down a father of two in broad daylight, execution-style.Â
The location choice, like the timing of the shows , certainly seems to be deliberate. Opening night is June 15, a week after Mangiones state trial was supposed to begin, until a New York judge delayed that trial until this fall.
But the show will go on regardless and will likely sell out, if its brief run in last year was any indication. All five of the shows performances in June 2025 â just six months after Mangione allegedly murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson â sold out and were met with standing ovations, according to reports.
The shows creators have insisted “Luigi: The Musical” is a and that its not intended to trivialize the seriousness of Mangiones alleged crimes â or the crimes of Sean “Diddy” Combs and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who are also depicted in the musical with Mangione in Brooklyns Metropolitan Detention Center.Â
Except, in the case of Mangione, thats exactly what it does. The entire point of the show, according to one of its own co-writers, is to expose the “big pillars of institutions in society,” including the healthcare industry, “that are failing in their trust.” Throughout the show, Mangiones character uses these failings to justify his actions, even at one point calling himself a “martyr.”
“Bringing down a tiny part of our broken brings me enough happiness to share!” the stage version of Luigi reportedly sings, warning that hell kill any other CEO he considers to be an obstacle to progress.
Now, unlike the musicals creators, I dont think people are stupid. Its pretty obvious theyre lining up to see “Luigi: The Musical” for the same reason its writers were able to produce it in under two months: because they agree with the underlying drove him to allegedly shoot a man in the back, and are sympathetic to him because of it. And whether theyll admit it or not, the effect is to make radicalization seem ordinary â even understandable.Â
Unfortunately, my generation, Gen Z, appears to be leading the effort to . Young adults my age are alarmingly open to the use of political violence, with 41% of 18- to 29-year-olds saying in a 2024 poll that they agree it is “somewhat” or “completely” acceptable to kill a CEO, as Mangione is charged with doing.
Another poll from 2025 similarly found that 40% of young Americans believe political violence can be acceptable under certain circumstances, including when someone “promotes extremist beliefs.”
Gen Zers support Mangione because they see him as a representative of the resentment and anger they have toward the institutions they believe have failed them. They share many of his documented grievances, including doomerism and a frustration with capitalism. Mangione is Gen Zs Robin Hood or, as the New York Post put it, their Jean Valjean.Â
By casting Mangione as a figure of fascination rather than condemnation, “Luigi: The Musical” plays into that demented narrative and reinforces the burgeoning belief among young adults that the only way to get the kind of change they want is by own hands.Â
Again, this is deliberate. For many years, the left has used the cultural institutions it dominates, including the , to plant the seeds of revolution in Americas youth by teaching them to see th