FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE

By Adam Kluger

Perhaps the most talked about theatrical event of the current season in Los Angeles is the re-opening of For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson As Told By His Glove. This hilarious musical takes a decidedly off-kilter approach to telling the life story of Michael Jackson. Using Michael Jackson’s glove as the play’s unlikely narrator, this show gives audiences a freshly revisionist look into the strange forces that shaped Michael and the scandals that bedeviled his reputation.

The show utilizes a combination of actors and incredible life-sized puppets. The puppets, designed by renowned puppeteer Robin Walsh, draw from the Japanese Bunraku form and are operated by puppeteers in full view of the audience. Realistic and close to life size, these twenty original works of art portray members of the Jackson 5, Donny Osmond, Barbara Walters, Emmanuel Lewis and Corey Feldman.

The show opened in 2020 and was getting rave reviews. Celebrities started showing up. People were flying in from other cities to see it after stories were written about it for NPR’s Morning Edition, the LA Times, Forbes and in the international press. Articles compared the show to Avenue Q, Book of Mormon and The Producers. Plans were even being hatched to bring it to a theater in New York when covid hit and closed the show.

Now re-worked, it is finally reopening. By taking events from Michael’s life and re-telling them through the perspective of a glove (who happened to be a musically talented alien) the show re-examines Michael’s life in a fresh and comical way. Writer/ Director Julien Nitzberg wanted the musical to address the incendiary trifecta of race, religion and sexuality that were always controversial undercurrents in Michael’s story.

Central to its re-examination of Michael’s life is looking at the damage that Michael’s religion (the Jehovah’s Witnesses) caused. Among the odd beliefs of the Jehovah Witnesses is the teaching that masturbation can turn men gay. They warn that, while masturbating, a man becomes accustomed to the male touch on his penis, which, logically, can turn a man into a raging homosexual, demanding other men touch his penis. The show tries to make sense of how, coming from this religion, one of Michael’s signature dance moves became his controversial crotch grab. The musical, of course, explains this as his glove’s idea, not Michael’s. For the Love of a Glove has no music by Michael Jackson but instead features amazing original songs that echoes the sounds of that time by pop songwriters Coco Morier, Drew Erickson and Max Townsley. Choreography is provided by Michael Jackson’s former lead dancer/ renowned choreographer Cris Judd. The show's unique perspective and bold humor is sure to shock, amuse and impress anyone lucky enough to see it. Peter Gould, the cocreator and showrunner of Better Call Saul, saw the show and proclaimed it “Jawdroppingly inventive, surprising, funny and... unexpectedly emotional.” If you can, see this show. It is unlike anything else out now.