Over the past 110 years, the living puppet Pinocchio has been played by everyone from 1950s Western hero Dick Jones to 1990s tween heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas to 2000s adult man Roberto Benigni. Most adaptations of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 children’s novel
The Adventures of Pinocchio follow the same threads: a fairy brings a puppet to life, and he runs around having ill-advised adventures. Eventually, he learns to behave, and becomes a flesh-and-blood boy. But only one adaptation sends Pinocchio on a hellish descent into madness parallel to the one Todd Phillips tracks in
Joker.
The 2000 Disney TV musical
Geppetto was written by David I. Stern and directed by Tom Moore, featuring songs penned by Broadway veteran and