Fifteen years ago, La Jolla Playhouse commissioned a new musical about gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Next week "The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical" finally has its world premiere and proves to be as relevant as ever.
For some, writer and journalist Hunter S. Thompson is only a cartoonish icon portrayed in his alter ego form of Raoul Duke by Johnny Depp in Terry Gilliam's film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." For others he is a symbol of a take-no-prisoners counter-culture rebellion born in the 1960s. Figuring out exactly who Thompson was is no easy task. He gladly embellished his notorious public image while simultaneously cursing how he could not escape the monster he had created.
But one thing is certain, Thompson was, and remains, a fascinating man and writer whose influence can still be felt today. And his writing, especially about politics, is as potent and trenchant as ever.
Origin of a musical
Joe Iconis’ first memory of Thompson was going as a teenager to see the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." That film and Depp’s performance got Iconis hooked on Thompson as a notorious pop culture figure.
Then Iconis started to read Thompson’s work from the 60s and 70s.
"There was real poetry to his language, there was real music in his language," Iconis said. "But the content of it was so far out and it had such a sex, drugs and rock and roll kind of vibe. I wasn't used to that kind of vibe, that kind of aggression and sort of psychedelic imagery in writing that felt really beautiful and really poetic and really romantic."
Fifteen years ago, Iconis' passion for Thompson inspired Christopher Ashley, then the newly-appointed artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse to commission a play.
"He talked about Hunter Thompson's love for the outsiders and the misfits and the others, and that seemed to me such a great thing to write a musical about and also such a great thing to share with an audience," Ashley recalled.
And Iconis was dedicated to the idea of telling Thompson's story without any sugarcoating.
"I thought it feels so in his spirit to make a musical about him that honors his complexity and allows him to do things that are ugly and problematic and then leaves it to the audience to decide, was this guy worth it?" Iconis said.
For Ashley, the answer is yes.
"That's what you want in drama, right? You want complications and you want layers of the onion to unpeel," Ashley said. "That's been one of the really fun things about kind of doing all diving deep into the research about Hunter Thompson is he was a thousand different things. He was everything you love and everything you fight against kind of rolled up into one contradictory person."
Who was Hunter S. Thompson?
Dramaturg Shirley Fishman did a lot of research on Thompson for the play.
"It's almost as if the political climate created him," Fishman said. "It was like a kismet that happened. And then because of his moral fiber and his ability to describe his own feelings about what he was observing — it was, as an everyday reader, when you read something in the newspaper, you go, 'Yeah, that's right.' But with Hunter, it's like, 'Damn, that's right.' Because the writing is so visceral."
Fishman also noted that his amazing use of language stemmed in part from his background as a sports writer.
"Sports writers, as you probably know, need to report, especially if they were on the radio at that time, they had to be able to describe things using adjectives and verbs, and they had to keep it moving. And that became a kind of touchstone for him in his writing," Fishman said.
She also noted that his interview with Harrison Salisbury (see video below) was the most insightful into Thompson's work.
Thompson is often credited as the father of gonzo journalism and telling the truth in a subjective way.
"At the time that he created it, it felt really groundbreaking and it felt like something that was really in the hands of liberal thinkers. It felt like it was something that was in the hands of people who were challenging the establishment and questioning authority," Iconis said. "Now, this idea of truth being subjective and facts being subjective is something that is very, very different and means something totally different."
As we can now see with news outlets.
"MSNBC and Fox News are both living in a gonzo universe," Ashley added. "Where the commentators are the story and that point of view is everything. So I both love Hunter S. Thompson and there's days when I get mad at him for having been one of the forerunners of some of the disinterest in truth or objective truth that I think we're living through right now."
Gabriel Ebert plays Thompson and is required to age onstage to take us through the decades of the writer's life. He sees the play as being about a writer’s struggle to do something to shake up the status quo.
"Hunter's belief that good art — art that you care about — could, at its best, change the world. But even if it's not able to change the world, it could make the world a safer place for the people in it who feel lost and alone," Ebert said. "I know that he's often remembered for his antics outside of his writing, and we definitely delve into that territory as well in the musical, but I think as a writer, his real heart was in the right place about calling out hypocrisy and trying to create something better that we could all move towards."
Iconis agreed: "It's like at the center of all of these mad ramblings, I think, is someone who cared deeply about people who feel othered, people who feel like misfits, people who don't have any place to belong, and he was trying to make a space for them."
That resonates today along with many other things.
"It's really amazing how much if you really dig into the how many things rhyme with now, both in terms of youth culture, there's lots of ways in which Nixon rhymes with Trump. There's all kinds of things that are sort of parallel between the two times," Ashley added.
While the ideas resonate, the musical chooses to keep its setting in a somewhat concrete location from the past: Thompson's infamous office.
"So his office started as a kind of living room office and then it kind of took over a kitchen and his desk was on the kitchen counter and he completely covered every inch of available wall space with stuff from his life and politics and Americana and guns and sex dolls. It's like his mind exploded all over it," Ashley said of Thompson's real life office. "Our set designer, Wilson Chin, pulled out a picture of Hunter's actual office and said, 'I think this is what the set should feel like.' So it's both his office and also the show is happening inside of his mind."
But would Hunter S. Thompson approve of a musical about him?
The title of the musical smartly plays on the contradiction of Thompson's name next to the word "musical" and openly admits to being "unauthorized." Thompson would have probably appreciated the unauthorized approach but also would likely bristle at the mainstream connotations of a musical.
"I have every reason to believe Hunter S. Thompson was not a man who enjoyed a show tune," Iconis confessed. "But I think if I could convince him to come in the room to see this particular musical, I think he would dig it, or I think he would, at the very least, appreciate it."
In the play, Iconis has Thompson say, "I was a disrupter from birth."
So as a lifelong, confirmed disrupter, what would Thompson think about being the subject of a musical at the very reputable La Jolla Playhouse.
"I think he would hate it," Iconis said with a laugh. "I do not think that Hunter S. Thompson would have been a subscriber to the La Jolla Playhouse or would have been eager to buy a ticket to 'Back to the Future, the Musical,' or anything that is currently on Broadway or has ever been on Broadway."
But maybe Thompson would appreciate that kind of honesty ... or attention.
"I think Hunter S. Thompson would have assumed that there would be multiple musicals by now. I think he was maybe the most egotistical person I've ever encountered and I think he'd be totally delighted by all of the ways that we celebrate and dig into his issues," Ashley noted. "I think he was up for fun and he was up for the unexpected. And hopefully this musical is both of those things."
Channeling the man he is playing, Ebert wondered if it might be the words that would appeal to Thompson.
"He loved words. Words were his jazz, words were his music," Ebert said. "And Joe is not frivolous with his words. And Joe gets the laughs in a way that I think Hunter would appreciate. Joe tells the truth in a way that I think Hunter would appreciate. And Joe also lies in a way that I think Hunter would appreciate. He'd at least see a glimmer of himself in there and be tickled by it."
Iconis hopes that his love for Thompson and what Thompson valued will come through in the show.
"This show desperately wants to feel like it's making a place for people who don't often get a place made for them in the world and in musical theater specifically," Iconis said. "And I think he'd like the puppets. Puppets are great."
Wait, there are also puppets?
"The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical" promises to deliver surprises. It also promises be everything you love as well as everything you might hate about the man and the myth all rolled up into one heady trip.
