About a mile and a half from where Luigi Mangione (allegedly) murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and a schlep from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where the (alleged) assassin is being held as he awaits state and federal trials, Luigi: The Musical finished its six-night New York City run at The Green Room 42 in the YOTEL New York Times Square.

I would have skipped Luigi — I’d prefer a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins instead — but when the likes of Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert start promoting a show that mentions “MILFs and Bottoms for Luigi,” I figure I should go.

My plan was to interview audience members about the increasing tide of political violence in America — I imagined they’d have revealing opinions to share, given that they’d taken time out of their summers to see a show that, according to its press release, “doesn’t glorify violence, it interrogates it.”

Personally, I can’t think of a more appropriate time to “interrogate” violence — since the murder of Charlie Kirk, we’ve seen assassination attempts on Sam Altman, multiple “security incidents” involving President Trump (both foreign and domestic), and Bluesky musings about a world without Elon Musk.

But what I found at the Luigi musical was less “interrogation” and more… applause.