Most Wanted

I was pleased to catch a workshop production of a new musical MOST WANTED, written by Jessica Hagedorn and Mark Bennett, and directed by former Artistic Director Michael Greif.  It is an extremely powerful piece that uses the life of the murderer of Versace, Andrew Cunanan, as a jumping off place to examine the cult of celebrity in America. It is made even more powerful by the fact the Cunanan was a local and the wounds are still fresh with some of the inhabitants. The performances were uniformly good and the sets, costumes, and the wonderful score were first rate. This is a workshop production so I am asked to not give a full review. This is part of a new series at La Jolla called THE EDGE that attempt to bring “the freshest, most adventurous work to its stages and to attract new audiences. MOST WANTED fulfils the bill. I loved the piece though at times I felt the story was not extrapolated to give, as it were, a Brechtian distance to the horrible story of Cunanen. But maybe that’s just as well because his tale is certainly a cautionary and tragic one.

LA JOLLA PLAHOUSE closed Oct 14