For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, As told by His Glove.
Welcome to the developmental premiere of a new original musical.
For the Love of a Glove takes a decidedly off-kilter approach to telling the life story of Michael Jackson. Using Michael Jackson’s glove as the play’s narrator, this show gives audiences a freshly revisionist look into the strange forces that shaped Michael and the scandals that bedeviled his reputation. By taking real life events from Michael’s life and re-telling them through the perspective of a glove who happened to be a musically talented alien trying to take over humanity, the show re-examines Michael’s life in a fresh and comical way that will surprise audiences by its unique take on all the strange unexplainable moments of his life.
In real life, Michael’s favorite musical was The Sound of Music. This Rodgers and Hammerstein classic did not feature any of the actual music performed in real life by the von Trapp family, featuring instead a completely original score. Inspired by this, For the Love of a Glove does not use any of the Jackson 5’s or Michael’s music to tell his story. Using only original music created for the show, this musical presents a comic retelling of Michael Jackson’s life as a way to address the incendiary trifecta of race, religion and sexuality that were always controversial undercurrents in Michael’s story. The show hits on these topics that are just as much a part of our national conversation today as they were in Michael’s own heyday.
Deeply researched, For the Love of a Glove puts at its center the Amadeus/Salieri relationship that existed between Michael and Donny Osmond, suggesting this as the key to understanding much of Michael’s life. This aspect of Michael’s story is not known to many people. Before cultural appropriation became a contemporary buzzword, the Osmonds were appropriating the Jackson 5’s look and sound in a way that caused controversy in the black community but was ignored in the white world. For the Love of a Glove delves into this strange history while also surveying the damage that the Jehovah’s Witnesses (Michael’s own religion) caused in his life. Controversial, daring, but always funny, For the Love of a Glove is not like any musical you’ve ever seen before.