*Johnny Depp has signed on to produce a musical about the life of Michael Jackson but with a twist! The story will be told from the perspective of the late singer’s infamous sequined glove.
Playwright Julien Nitzberg is the mastermind behind the project, titled “For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, as told by his Glove.” Nitzberg came up with the idea after a disagreement over a Jackson biopic script, per Complex.
“A major TV network wanted me to write a [Jackson] movie … but the question came up [about] how to deal with the child-abuse allegations,” he told Page Six. “I said, how’s this? Everything MJ has been accused of has actually been caused by his glove, which is actually an alien from outer space [and] feeds on virgin boy blood. They laughed and said, can you do the normal version?”
Nitzberg said he refused and turned down “a really big paycheck.”
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“When I said ‘no’ to the Michael Jackson biopic, I’m sure they offered the job to another writer,” said Nitzberg, whose credits include the documentary “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.” “I have no idea what happened to the project. In Hollywood, they develop so many things that never get made. My guess is that they never cracked how to tell the story. Because no one can really know what went on in Michael’s head or house, it’s an impossible story to tell and not have it be fully, non-logically absurd.”
After the meeting with the TV network, he recalled thinking to himself: “I’m going to go back to this … and do this as a musical … we just couldn’t get the financing.”
That’s when Depp’s Infinitum Nihil production stepped in.
“For the Love of a Glove” is described as a “look into the strange forces that shaped Michael and the scandals that bedeviled his reputation.”
Here’s the synopsis via IndieWire:
Was Michael Jackson framed for horrible crimes by four aliens who were trying to take over Earth by using him as their patsy? Did God turn Michael white to get revenge on Donny Osmond and the Mormons for teaching that black people were cursed? Are Jehovah’s Witnesses telling the truth when they teach that masturbating can make you gay? Only one person knows the answers and… everyone thinks he’s just a glove. It might be the most f’ed up musical you’ll ever see. And it’s got puppets. Come meet the hand that grabbed Michael’s gland in Neverland.
The show will include puppet depictions of the Jackson 5, Corey Feldman, Donny Osmond and Jackson’s chimpanzee, Bubbles.
Nitzberg said that he “interviewed a lot of people who knew Michael and no one could really explain why he behaved the way he did.”
“For the Love of a Glove” opens January 25 at the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan theatre in Los Angeles.
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