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Monday, February 2nd, 2004
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7:52p - Andrew Cunanan: The Musical
No, really. You can all stop laughing now. It's not a joke. Disposable, a musical based on the life of Andrew Cunanan, will have its prémiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in my hometown of San Diego, California. It is written by none other than the esteemed Filipina-American playwright, Jessica Hagedorn.
Before my fellow Pinoys get excited at the prospect of, "Wow! A Filipino protagonist in a musical, authored by Jessica Hagedorn herself! Power to the people! Mabuhay!" I want to take this opportunity to jog the memories of my readers of every nationality about who Andrew Cunanan was, just in case news items from well over seven or eight years ago have understandably faded out of your respective recollections with everything that's been going on in the world today. Andrew Cunanan was the notorious serial killer whose killing spree in the summer of 1997 culminated with the death of fashion designer Gianni Versace, and Cunanan's own suicide.
Filipinos finally get a chance to be portrayed in the musical theatre world - and I mean, Filipinos, not Asians (Miss Saigon was Vietnamese and Flower Drum Song was Chinese, although the casts of these two musicals seem to always be predominately Filipino) - and of all the people that they could have picked to portray in such a medium, Jessica Hagedorn picks, not José Rizal, not Lapu-Lapu, not even Ferdinand Marcos, but Andrew-freakin'-Cunanan!
To Ms. Hagedorn's credit, and also to the credit of whoever greenlighted the idea, Cunanan did have an interesting, if tortured, life. He was an intelligent, handsome, cultured rich kid who attended the best prep schools in San Diego and was said to have spoke seven languages. On the negative side, he was a male prostitute who was frequently abused, sexually and psychologically, by his rich boyfriends, and this seemed to have caused him to snap, which triggered his killing spree. Heavy stuff. I guess pissed off French people, nocturnal opera house monstrosities, and chorus boys and girls dancing around in kitty costumes just doesn't sell anymore.
But seriously, people, am I just totally off the mark to think that there's something seriously wrong here?
I'm not going to go off on the angle of how it "represents Filipinos in a negative light," as most critics have done. A lot of musicals that have been made about less-than-impeccable individuals - Evita, for example - have not, in turn, negatively portrayed the group they belonged to. The fact that Andrew Cunanan is a Filipino does not send the message that all Filipinos are serial killers any more than the fact that Evita Perón was Argentine suggest that Argentine women are manipulative social climbers. However, my grievance with the musical has to do with the subject matter. Musical theatre is a genre that seems, by its nature, to make the protagonist of the story, despite his or her many faults, a sympathetic character. I mean, you can't really feel animonsity for a guy who's singing, can you? Sure a lot of movies have been made about serial killers - Monster, Silence of the Lambs, and countless others. Movies, however, do not necessarily lend themselves toward making the protagonist a sympathetic figure. And sure, a lot of musicals have been made about murderous individuals - Chicago, Sweeney Todd and Jekyll & Hyde come to mind, but the two aforementioned musicals were based on fictional stories, whereas the Andrew Cunanan musical would not be. Imagine if someone were to make a musical based on the lives of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo, or about Ted Kaczynski or Charles Manson. The families of the victims would be rightly angered at such a musical, as the memory of these mens' crimes are still fresh in the public's memory. While I appreciate art in any form and about any subject matter, I feel that such a project is neither prudent nor well-timed. A Jack The Ripper musical would work, as those events occurred a century and a half ago, an Andrew Cunanan musical will not. Stick to loveable Filipina girls as your protagonists, Ms. Hagedorn.
current mood:  confused
current music: "Fair" - Ben Folds Five
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