Here's an idea that would make Sweeney Todd proud

Someday, one of the missing wife cases dominating the local news these days might be the subject of a musical.

As silly as it sounds, you could be able to get a ticket for "The Petersons and The Stebics: An Outrageous Operetta."

The miscreants responsible for whatever happened to Chicago's three most desperate wives -- Stacy, Kathleen and Lisa -- hardly seem like they deserve to be memorialized in whimsical stage productions.

But if you actually wanted to put on such killer musicals, the government would probably give you thousands of dollars in seed money just to get started.

Consider the recent smash stage production of "Most Wanted," aka: Andrew Cunanan, The Musical. It just finished a run in southern California.

In case you don't remember Mr. Cunanan, let me refresh your recollection. He was Public Enemy No. 1 ten years ago, rising quickly to the top of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in the summer of 1997.

Cunanan, 27, was suspected of killing a couple of guys he knew in Minnesota.

Then he came to Chicago to allegedly torture and murder Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin, 72.

One of Chicago's most prominent businessmen and social figures, Miglin had been stabbed with gardening clippers, nearly decapitated with a tree saw and run over a few times in the garage of his Gold Coast home.

Cunanan delivered "a worse death than Christ," according to Miglin's 96-year old mother, before he munched on a ham sandwich and some apple slices and left for the East Coast.

He supposedly killed a cemetery worker in New Jersey because he needed a vehicle. Then Cunanan really made his mark on the world.

With the FBI and local police departments from California to Chicago to New York to Florida just a few steps behind him, Cunanan is believed to have shot and killed famous fashion designer Gianni Versace on the front steps of his Ocean Drive mansion on South Miami Beach.

The same government that spent millions of dollars unsuccessfully chasing Cunanan ten years ago (he ended up committing suicide and could never be prosecuted) has now helped to fund a hit musical play about Cunanan.

The story of how a sick, serial killing suspect ended up as a stage musical began in 1999. Theater composer Mark Bennett wanted to write a score about America's obsession with celebrities. Bennett saw Cunanan, the gay playboy-turned-killer cult figure as the perfect motor to drive his story.

In 2003 the project received a $35,000 grant from the federal government's National Endowment for the Arts.

After a couple of test runs at drama workshops in New York, the Cunanan musical opened to sellout audiences last month at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. There was a ready-made audience for Mr. Cunanan's life story set to song. The theater is just north of San Diego, where Cunanan was living at the time he launched his coast-to-coast road trip of horrors.

According to the playbill, "'Most Wanted' is a music theatre piece that explores our society's obsession with wealth, fame and cult of celebrity. In the wake of the media frenzy surrounding the brutal murder of the world's premier fashion designer, drag queens, divas and dandies all gather to take us on a kaleidoscopic journey through high fashion, glossy magazines, low dives and into the mind of a young killer."

Isn't that just how you would like to unwind after a tough week? And what a thoughtful way for the government to dole out a few of your hard-earned tax dollars, too.

Composer and co-lyricist Mark Bennett told me, "It's our hope that the piece is springboard for conversation about a number of issues. The life and crimes of Cunanan are really only the launch pad that allows us to explore all the ideas that interest Jessica and me."

Jessica Hagedorn is the playwright and co-lyricist. "The important thing for me in writing this piece was to address the question of why this culture of celebrity is so prevalent today," she said. "This play explores the dark side of the American dream. What does it really mean to be a person of color in this country? What does being American mean? Does it mean you are fine if you are famous?"

"There's a lot in the play about America and the seductiveness of a variety of things, be it celebrity, money, power, fame, and here's a story that opens up a discussion all about that," Bennett added.

The Cunanan musical producers say said last month's two-week run in California was intended to help them in "the fine-tuning of a meaningful story line." They wouldn't say when a tuned-up Cunanan show might grace a stage in Chicago.

Hopefully though, by then, the Peterson and Stebec scripts will have endings.