New play to focus on serial killer Cunanan
Three receive grant from NEA for project
By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC
December 24, 2003
San Diego-bred serial killer Andrew Cunanan, whose killing spree ended
with the death of fashion designer Gianni Versace, will be the subject
of a musical theater piece to be developed next year for an eventual
premiere at La Jolla Playhouse.
Former Playhouse director Michael Greif, writer Jessica Hagedorn, and
composer Mark Bennett will work on the project next year under the
terms of a $35,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Cunanan, a scholar-athlete at The Bishop's School in La Jolla in the
mid-1980s, earned a reputation as a gay playboy before embarking on a
murderous 1997 journey that had Hillcrest friends fearing for their
lives and the FBI involved in a national manhunt.
Police linked him to five slayings in Minnesota, Illinois and Florida,
and the FBI placed him on its 10 Most Wanted list. When a caretaker
spotted him hiding on a Miami houseboat a week after Versace's
killing, Cunanan committed suicide before police could apprehend him.
Hagedorn, a Filipino-American like Cunanan, adapted her novel of the
Philippines, "Dogeaters," into a 1994 Playhouse hit directed by Greif.
A revised version of the bustling play about the Marcos-era nation
later had a successful run at New York's off-Broadway Public Theatre.
Hagedorn will create "Disposable" during 2004, according to an NEA
announcement that described the piece as "loosely based on the life of
Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer."
The work is in the early stages of development, said Playhouse
spokeswoman Jessica Padilla, who noted that the collaborative effort
"is a long-term project and will not be a traditional musical."
"We've commissioned this piece and will follow it through every stage
of development. It could be seen as soon as fall 2004 on our
Page-to-Stage workshop program or in 2005," said Playhouse executive
director Terrence Dwyer.
"The idea emerged from this creative team, who wanted to explore
issues of economic and ethnic diversity that the (Cunanan) story
perfectly frames, and we liked the fact the story was known nationally
but had local roots."
Greif, who directed the hit Jonathan Larson musical "Rent," graduated
from UCSD's masters-in-directing program and headed the Playhouse from
1994 to 1999. He just opened a new Broadway musical "Never Gonna
Dance," based on the 1936 Astaire-Rogers film "Swing Time." Reviews of
the show, with classic music by Jerome Kern and choreography by "Full
Monty" dance-maker Jerry Mitchell, were mostly muted or mixed, but
audience response and attendance at the Broadhurst Theater has been
strong. Greif could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Composer Bennett created new music and sound for two shows currently
on Broadway – "Golda's Balcony" with Tovah Feldshuh and (Old Globe
artistic director) Jack O'Brien's hit staging of "Henry IV" at the
Lincoln Center. Bennett was at the Playhouse last summer for the world
premiere of Tom Donaghy's "Eden Lane."
A 1998 feature film, "The Versace Murder," about the Versace-Cunanan
tale starred Franco Nero and Steven Bauer. A 90-minute Cinemax
presentation on its "Reel Life" documentary series included interviews
with Cunanan's father, retired from the U.S. Navy, who maintained his
son was neither gay nor a murderer.
Cunanan's three-month, cross-country killing spree sent shock waves
through San Diego, especially the gay community in Hillcrest. Cunanan
and four of his five victims were gay. His final slaying – that of
fashion legend Versace – occurred outside the designer's beachfront
mansion in July 15, 1997. Cunanan was found dead in the Florida
houseboat eight days later.
