Johnny Depp has signed on to produce a musical about the life of Michael Jackson—and it'll be told from the perspective of the late artist's iconic sequined glove.
The stage show is titled For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, as told by his Glove. The music was written by playwright Julien Nitzberg, who said he had come up with the idea after a disagreement over a Jackson biopic script.
"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 ultimately turned down the gig and "a really big paycheck."
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."
Enter Depp's Infinitum Nihil production, which had worked with Nitzberg on a Tiny Tim biopic that was ultimately never made.
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." The show will include depictions of the Jackson 5, Corey Feldman, Donny Osmond and Bubbles the chimpanzee—all of whom will be portrayed by puppets. For the Love of a Glove is reportedly Jan. 25 at the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater in Los Angeles.
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