Outcry over Cunanan play

A play about Andrew Cunanan’s 1997 killing spree, being developed by La Jolla Playhouse, is drawing opposition on both coasts. Some members of South Florida’s gay community and a friend of Cunanan’s in California oppose the production.

Cunanan, a 27-year-old reputed gay escort and drug user, was linked to five murders across the country, including the slaying of fashion designer Gianni Versace. He killed himself in Florida in 1997.

“Cunanan was sick and do you celebrate that? People’s lives were gone and do you celebrate that?” asked Bill Peters of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Fort Lauderdale.

The La Jolla Playhouse received a $35,000 grant for the project from the National Endowment for the Arts. The piece would be called “Disposable” and would be “loosely based on the life of Andrew Cunanan,” said associate artistic director Shirley Fishman.

“It will examine some issues in our contemporary society, like class difference, the media’s obsession with celebrity, wealth and fame, and the media’s penchant for sensationalism,” she said.

From Associated Press