More than a re-imagining of the Michael Jackson story, Julien Nitzberg’s play, For the Love of a Glove, serves as a point of departure for a wildly surreal take on an already bizarre life, from the troubled entertainer’s repressed childhood in Gary, Indiana, to the shady realm of Neverland. Among other things, the madly inventive production depicts Jackson as the pawn in an inter-planetary takeover by funky vampiric aliens and functions as a critique on American race relations, religion, and the pitfalls of the music industry.

Eric B. Anthony plays Michael Jackson in FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE

This highly unauthorized two-and-a-half-hour spectacle, featuring 10 superb performers—most of whom take on multiple roles (and role-playing)—veers from the sublime to the obscene in an idiosyncratic demolition of the traditional jukebox musical. Puppetry is also involved. And gloves.

Jerry Minor plays Michael Jackson’s glove

By making the famed glove the culprit for The King of Pop’s various eccentricities and transgressions—chimp adoption, pedophilia, pill-popping—the life is transformed into something altogether sweeter and more harmless than the tabloid and courtroom versions would have us believe. The radical facial reconstruction Jacko underwent inspires some pointed observations in song on the advantages of being Caucasian: “What a delight when you become white/ Policemen won’t kill you, they’ll be quite polite.”

Donny Osmund and Michael Jackson, photo by Patrick Lee

White appropriation (the Osmonds as a bleached dilution of the Jackson 5) and masturbation (beating it), are also invoked in the service of skewering Jehovah’s Witnesses (Jacksons) and Mormons (Osmonds), and the show features what have to be the most convincing post-orgasmic moans ever heard on a stage.

Julien Nitzberg on the set, photo by Harry Pallenberg/Sunny & Mild Media

While succeeding in being outrageous in its righteous roastings of race and religiosity, the show fluctuates between sharp satire and endearing chaos, snapping back into life with a hilarious musical routine whenever it seems in danger of slipping into overstimulating incoherence.

If you miss it on Temple street, don’t worry; give it time and you might be able to catch it on Broadway.

For the Love of a Glove at Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater, Center for Inquiry West, 2535 W. Temple St., Westlake; Sat., Jan. 25-Sun., Mar. 8; $50-$110. fortheloveofaglove.com.