Johnny Depp is producing an unauthorized stage play about Michael Jackson as told from the perspective of his trademark white sequin glove, and this is certainly a sentence I’ve never had to write before. From Julien Nitzberg, the project is amusingly titled For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, as told by his Glove.

With the Michael Jackson glove serving as both the story’s narrator and its antagonist, the musical’s plot will “look into the strange forces that shaped Michael and the scandals that bedeviled his reputation.” Also featured alongside real-life actors will be life-size puppets of key figures from Jackson’s life, including the Jackson 5, Donny Osmond, Emmanuel Lewis, Corey Feldman, and Bubbles the Chimp. A satirical musical, the story will explain the child-abuse allegations against Jackson by suggesting the glove itself was directly involved. After hearing about this, Corey Feldman himself jumped into the frey and offered this on Twitter.

DEPP-SPRATE MOVES: WTF DID I JUST READ?!? IS THIS REALLY A THING? AND WTF IS WRONG W DEPP THAT HE WOULD WANT 2 PRODUCE THIS?? TONE DEAF & TASTELESS? THIS 1 TAKES THE CAKE! ID NORMALLY KEEP MY OPINIONS 2 MYSELF BUT WHEN MY NAMES AN INGREDIENT, I GOTTA CHEW! https://t.co/B0n2IHrUzy

— Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) November 30, 2019

According to Nitzberg, this strange idea first came to him 17 years ago when he was hired to develop a Michael Jackson biopic for a major television studio. Naturally, there were concerns over how to handle the infamous child-abuse allegations against Jackson, leading to Ntizberg pitching the idea about Jackson’s glove, which is actually “an alien from outer space [and] feeds on virgin boy blood.” Nitzberg says he wound up turning down a big paycheck because the movie felt “morally kind of repugnant” to write, though he later decided to revisit the idea and develop it as a musical.

Nitzberg’s relationship with Depp’s company Infinitum Nihil began when Nitzberg was hired to write a biopic about ’60s musician Tiny Tim with John Turturro set to star. The planned movie wound up falling through, but the collaboration led to both sides building a solid relationship with one another. After the Tiny Tim biopic was scrapped, the company spoke with Nitzberg to see if he had any other pitches in mind for him to work on for them instead. “I’m doing this theater piece you probably aren’t interested in,” Nitzberg told them heading into his pitch about the story of Michael Jackson’s glove, and, apparently, Infinitum Nihil was interested after all.

This stage musical will be one of many projects based on the life and career of Jackson currently in the works. MJ, a sanctioned musical about the late singer, will be heading to Broadway in Summer 2020, featuring the most popular tunes from Jackson’s discography. Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King has also reportedly scored the rights to Jackson’s music catalog for a theatrical biopic about the King of Pop. These projects also follow this year’s controversial HBO documentary Leaving Neverland which explores the child-abuse allegations made against Michael Jackson by two men who knew him as young boys.

For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, as told by his Glove will debut in Los Angeles on Jan. 25. It remains to be seen if the inevitable controversy this musical will bring will affect its upcoming showings. This news comes to us from Page Six.

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