Courtney Love still planning to capture Kurt Cobain’s spirit with a Broadway musical

By Sean O'Neal | April 2, 2014 | 5:15pm

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As part of a continued honoring of Kurt Cobain’s memory that’s included making a crappy statue, publicly releasing photos from the scene of his suicide, and having him cavort around a tropical island for a beer commercial, Courtney Love has reignited plans for a Broadway musical based on her late husband’s life, which he ended prematurely for fear of everything mentioned in this sentence. Plans for a Nirvana musical have been rumored—and subsequently denied—for a couple of years now, but in a new NME interview, Love seems to have redoubled her plans for a stage play, along with a biopic and documentary, that will revisit the story of Nirvana according to the person most suited to tell it: the unstable woman who married its frontman for the final three years of his life.

“After being swarmed by tons of Nirvana fanmail and social media posts pushing for a musical to become a reality,” Love begins, of the many pro-Nirvana musical posts on social media, like so much plane debris, only she can see, “both Frances and I have thought long and hard and agreed that if we can reach up to the highest shelf and select a team of the greatest and most respected writers, producers and directors, then a Broadway musical is very likely to happen.” Still, Love acknowledges some obstacles remain, even beyond the inherent danger of Love taking something off a shelf.

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“There would have to be a story, and a great story, one that hasn't been told before,” Love said of the story that definitely has been told before, in numerous biographies, but rarely with direct financial or emotional benefit to Courtney Love. “I would devote countless hours with an A-team to create a project that reflects Kurt in the most respectful but honest way possible, so that his story, his music and his legacy can be resurrected on stage for not only the world to see, but more importantly for our daughter to see.”

Indeed, if Courtney Love has a problem, if no one else wants to help, and if she can find them, maybe she can hire the A-team. Until then, like a desperate Mexican village, Cobain’s legacy will just have to continue to suffer through the occasional exploitation, awaiting the kind of honest, respectful treatment it can only get in a Courtney Love-produced Broadway musical.