Maybe Lady Gaga is “controversial” – note the quotes – but she’s not the same kind of controversial as Michael Alig.
Nevertheless, we see both characters blended together in the staging of Of a Monstrous Child: a gaga musical, a Rhubarb show by another (relative) beacon of controversy, playwright/director Alistair Newton.
Alig is listed here as his co-writer.
Beyond co-writing musicals, Alig is known as the Party Monster, the famous Club Kids founder who tortured, murdered and dismembered his drug dealer over a debt. He was portrayed by Mac Culkin in the 2003 movie Party Monster. His name means “scum” to many New Yorkers still.
Gaga, on the other hand, is more of a muse here. She has nothing to do with production, though Newton has been trying to get her attention, both posting on her site and elsewhere.
In terms of controversial, Gaga is a Cabbage Patch doll compared to Alig.
But Newton is treating them as one and the same. The major indiscretion there, in my opinion, is that Gaga, love her or hate her (I love her), is an artist. Newton is merely pretending Alig is some sort of artist (though he did release an album from prison).
Newton is trying to court controversy here, clearly. Like that time he pushed the buttons of psycho church Westboro Baptist with his The Pastor Phelps Project: A Fundamentalist Cabaret during Summerworks.
But here he steps in it. He’s apparently been corresponding with Alig, who is holed up in an upstate New York jailhouse, for the production.
In this interview with the Globe, Newton defends working with a convicted murderer by referencing Mother Teresa’s candidacy for sainthood and human forgiveness. He never offers a reason as to why he chose Alig over any other convicted murderer (at least Phil Spector had some talent!).
Righteousness, I suppose, is his main defense.
Of a Monstrous Child: a gaga musical, a part of the Rhubarb Festival, plays 11 pm Friday and 10pm on Saturday at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. It may be remounted into a full production at a later date.
