Shkreli, Wu-Tang, the American Dream—All in One Musical

'PharmaBro: An American Douchical' runs through June 18 in NYC
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 19, 2017 6:07 PM CDT
Tickets Available for 'Absurdist' Musical About Martin Shkreli
A musical, based on this man, is now reality.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

If they can stage off-Broadway musicals for Octomom and Jerry Springer, surely there's room under the spotlight for "Pharma Bro." In what Quartz calls "satire at its strangest," a Manhattan theater is staging PharmaBro: An American Douchical through June 18, poking fun at Martin "Most Hated Man in America" Shkreli and his price-gouging of drugs for cancer and HIV patients, complete with such "absurdist plots" as a deceased Wu-Tang Clan member teaming up with Bill Murray to steal back the group's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album that Shkreli bought for $2 million in real life.

It's doubtful the production will win a Tony for best score with lyrics like "I'm Martin f---ing Shkreli, and you can all go f--- yourselves," but the 85-minute musical does touch on more serious issues like corporate greed and what Quartz sees as its vital underlying question: "What, at the core, is the American Dream?" Shkreli himself is "mildly flattered" about the musical, though he adds he won't be seeing it because, after all, it's no Book of Mormon, and ticket prices, in general, are too steep, per MarketWatch. For those who do plan on taking in a performance, the Financial Times has fact-checked the play to make critiquing easier. (Shkreli got suspended from Twitter in January for harassing a Teen Vogue writer.)

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