Home » John Hennessey Took An Edible On A Plane And Wrote A Musical About Women’s Empowerment

John Hennessey Took An Edible On A Plane And Wrote A Musical About Women’s Empowerment

Hennessey Gummi Ts
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If you were to describe John Hennessey in short, you might say he’s a character. He’s perhaps best known as the man behind Hennessey Performance Engineering, a hypercar manufacturer based in the United States. But that doesn’t mean he can’t do other things, too!

The news comes to us via Texas Monthly. The national magazine of the Lone Star state took a visit to the Hennessy shop, and naturally enjoyed a ride in the powerful Hennessey Venom F5. The outlet referred to this as the “world’s fastest car,” which is sure to draw some contention from multiple sources—the vehicle’s 1,817 horsepower notwithstanding.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

But it was altogether something else that caught our eye in this story. Apparently, Hennessey has sampled some of the greenery our bountiful Earth has on offer, and that pushed him to write a musical. Yes, I genuinely woke up today, and that’s the story I was tasked to write, so here I am doing it. It’s a fun and weird business, this one, so let’s dive in!

Hennessey’s Venom F5 has been on a long journey to top 300 miles per hour. 

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You What?

The Texas Monthly story is a wide-ranging exploration of John Hennessey’s life as a businessman in the motoring industry. While he started out working in asbestos abatement, the article chronicles how he came to turn his hand to cars, first making a big name for himself by tuning the Dodge Viper. From there, he eventually branched out into developing his own vehicles, before he famously tried to best Bugatti at the top speed game in the 2010s. That quest continues today, but as it turns out, it’s not the only creative pursuit that has drawn Hennessey’s attention.

Indeed, the article tells us that he once “took a gummy bear” on a flight from Los Angeles. We can draw conclusions as to what type of gummy bear this was—it’s perhaps implied that it was special but we won’t make any specific assumptions here. In any case, he was duly inspired to stay up all night to pen “a Broadway-style musical about ’empowering women and eighties-type music.'” Why haven’t we heard of this before? Well, sadly for us and the world of musical theatre, the piece never got made. “I’m told these productions are a total money pit,” Hennessey explained to Texas Monthly, with the magazine noting he was holding the idea for the future.

Gummis Thc
There are some wild gummy bears on the market these days, like these THC-infused examples from Bud Man. Were they the source of Hennessey’s inspiration?

As much ink has been spilled on Hennessey’s motoring exploits, we’ve heard precious little about his theatrical aspirations. To that end, we needed to know more, and thus The Autopian reached out to Hennessey directly on Sunday evening. What he told us was tantalizing, but not enough to get our hopes up. “Maybe the musical is something I’ll do if I ever retire from [the] automotive industry,” he says. “[I] prefer not to share details.”

Right there, that’s John Hennessey openly stating that yes, he really did write a whole musical after an intense experience with a gummy bear. As is so often the case with artists, he doesn’t want to get into specifics on what is surely a personal work in the early stages of construction. While it’s entirely possible to write a musical in one night, actually turning it into a full production generally involves multiple passes of rewrites, especially when going through the casting process. It would be unfair of us to expect Hennessey to divulge critical details around setting, story, and themes given that it’s a work he’s hoping to potentially return to in future.

That’s not to say we can’t speculate as to what it might involve. Given Hennessey’s penchant for going all-out in the car scene with immense power and speed, one imagines he’d take a similar approach to musical theatre. One can imagine a big production involving a huge cast, big showpiece dance numbers, and probably some high-dollar licensed music, to boot. Would Hennessey go the jukebox route, securing rights to tracks like Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer or Kim Wilde’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On? Or are we talking a more bespoke piece with handcrafted lyrics to fit the ebb and flow of the story?

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What could be more empowering than this?

As for the story itself, all we know is that it’s about “empowering women”—that’s a wide space to play in. One suspects, though, that Hennessey’s script would thus duly past the Bechdel test.

In any case, theatre is big business, particularly if you’re hoping to land on Broadway. He’d need a solid team behind him to pull off a viable production, and would ideally team up with those already experienced in the industry to have the greatest hope of success. While Hennessey has done well to keep his automotive business humming for 33 years, he’s faced some controversy about his company’s conduct along the way. One wouldn’t want to see that happen to his first nascent theatrical effort.

Indeed, 2016 saw our own Jason Torchinsky run a wild story on Hennessey Performance Engineering  (HPE) over at Jalopnik. Customers alleged that cars weren’t being delivered after payment, while ex-employees raised issues around the misuse of company funds. The most egregious accusations concerned the company using one customer’s funds to pay for the completion of another’s car, holding out on refunds, and simply failing to deliver finished vehicles, particularly for foreign buyers. Hennessey himself conceded “management issues” had affected the company, though offered little more to address the concerns raised in the piece.

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Which is more challenging—building a world-beating hypercar, or getting your first show on Broadway?

Those concerns could hurt Hennessey’s efforts to find partners with which to produce his debut musical. That would be a shame, but still. He does have a successful business behind him, and could potentially bankroll his way around these problems. In show business, as in life—money talks.

We’re not expecting updates on Hennessey’s musical any time soon, given he’s stated it’s a post-retirement project for him, if it goes any further at all. But if it does happen? You know you’re going to hear more at The Autopian. More when we have it.

Image credits: Budman, Hennessey Performance via YouTube screenshot

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Citrus
Citrus
17 days ago

Hennessey reminds me of my old workplace, where the company president was a Hennessy-esque figure – charismatic salesman who had an alarming ability to not deliver products that people paid for, and not pay for things he bought.

Anyway that company is extremely out of business.

Goblin
Goblin
17 days ago
Reply to  Citrus

My extremely charismatic first boss at the first real company I worked at in France was a wonderful wise person who rode a V-Max (the day it was stolen he was very pissed because it was raining and he stated “it will get crashed”, a minute or two before the Police called him and informed him his V-Max was found crashed with a very road-rashed thief in close proximity), and who had, as a previous job, sold pharmaceutical products on the front lines to the wrong side (turned out, the MPLA) in Angola during their civil war.

He ended up at the airport with UNITA’s troops a few miles behind him when the MPLA folded (or was it the other way around… I don’t remember) and asked for a ticket for the first flight to anywhere.

Turned out there were no flights to anywhere at all, as pretty much everyone who could leave had already left. So him and his pal booked a 727 for the two of them, which was, per his words – more expensive than anything else they had ever bought before, but less expensive than their lives. Never told us how much it was.

He ended up fleecing all of us enthousiastic pimpled youngsters when the company folded during the dot com bubble, but it was all done in such an elegant and classy way we mostly still toast to his health when we think about him.

Last edited 17 days ago by Goblin
Cerberus
Cerberus
18 days ago

This isn’t too far removed from the kinds of ideas I have on a daily basis driving home from work or in the shower or something. Maybe it’s because I don’t do drugs that I recognize these ideas as the temporarily entertaining throwaways they are or maybe it’s because I’m not exploring new potential avenues to screw people over that I don’t see their true value. “Women’s empowerment and ’80s! Those are two popular themes right now that sound like things marks investors might be keen on throwing money at!”

Col Lingus
Col Lingus
18 days ago

I ate two edibles this weekend.
All I wrote was a grocery list.
Then I lost it somewhere.

The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
17 days ago
Reply to  Col Lingus

So you’ve so far been more productive than John Hennessey.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
18 days ago

….to think there are people that believe this country is a meritocracy

JaredTheGeek
JaredTheGeek
18 days ago

I wrote a musical about David Tracy and the parking lot cats but I’m saving it for a more opportune time.

Taargus Taargus
Taargus Taargus
18 days ago

Springtime for douchebag John Hennessey
Winter for… anyone that gives him money?

I don’t know I gave up halfway. I’m sure someone can take a better crack at that.

Anoos
Anoos
18 days ago

Didn’t read, because JOHN HENNESSEY IS A THIEF.

And you just let him wipe his thieving taint all over your website.

Brandon Forbes
Brandon Forbes
18 days ago
Reply to  Anoos

He addressed this in the article, somewhat glossed over, but it is reiterated.

My Goat Ate My Homework
My Goat Ate My Homework
18 days ago

Let me make sure I’m getting this…

A wealthy, scamming, old, white guy bragged about writing a women’s empowerment musical?

I feel like in a different life he could have given Musk a run for his money.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
18 days ago

“the article tells us that he once “took a gummy bear” on a flight from Los Angeles. We can draw conclusions as to what type of gummy bear this was—it’s perhaps implied that it was special but we won’t make any specific assumptions here.

It’s a safe bet that gummy bear wasn’t of the “fully weaponized” sugar free variety:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michaelrusch/haribo-gummy-bear-reviews-on-amazon-are-the-most-insane-thin

“In any case, he was duly inspired to stay up all night to pen “a Broadway-style musical about empowering women and eighties-type music.’”

Would Hennessey go the jukebox route, securing rights to tracks like Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer or Kim Wilde’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On? ”

Both excellent options had John Hennessey instead written a whole musical about an *intense* experience with a small handful of sugar free gummy Hell Bears.

Last edited 18 days ago by Cheap Bastard
Taargus Taargus
Taargus Taargus
18 days ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

I do hope it was sugar-free gummy bears instead of the obvious alternative.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
16 days ago

Why not both? It would be quite an unforgettable trip…to the bathroom.

Cerberus
Cerberus
18 days ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

My sister once dated a guy who had Type 1 diabetes and she bought him a large package of the sugar free gummy bears. His dickish little brother took them and ate them all while they were out. Karma struck him hard.

Brandon Forbes
Brandon Forbes
18 days ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Thank you for the link to the article. Seriously, THANK YOU. That made my day!

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
16 days ago
Reply to  Brandon Forbes

And now you know the recipie for an unforgettable weekend 😉

Last edited 16 days ago by Cheap Bastard
Rippstik
Rippstik
18 days ago

Oh great, I wonder if he can sell the theater’s curtains to pay for props?

Lokki
Lokki
18 days ago

OBVIOUSLY, Hennessy watched that classic movie The Producers on that flight.

Plot Summary:

A stage-play producer devises a plan to make money by producing a sure-fire flop.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
18 days ago

I feel like this is only like the seventh-weirdest thing I’ve read on this website.

The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
18 days ago

This place is quickly becoming Hennessey’s unofficial PR department.

Brandon Forbes
Brandon Forbes
18 days ago

Ooh I would love to hear what the top 6 were

Tbird
Tbird
18 days ago

Paging Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock – I sense a big financial windfall.

V10omous
V10omous
18 days ago

If Hennessey were half as good at building cars as he is at drumming up positive press despite being a crook, he’d be as rich as Elon Musk.

Rusty S Trusty
Rusty S Trusty
18 days ago

Say what you will about John Hennessy but no one who’s worked in asbestos abatement is a stranger to hard work.

Lokki
Lokki
18 days ago
Reply to  Rusty S Trusty

You naively presume that Hennessy performed the contracted services. Given his track record, that’s quite the presumption.

The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years
18 days ago

“If you were to describe John Hennessey in short, you might say he’s a character.”

I personally would’ve chosen “thief”, or, “known criminal”, or “renowned shyster”.

Anoos
Anoos
18 days ago

You forgot “worthy potential recipient of a curb stomping.”

Alexk98
Alexk98
18 days ago

“I’m told these productions are a total money pit,” Hennessey explained

Oh right John, the musicals are are the money pits, not the vehicles customers pay for but never recieve…

Oh and that crash that happened while recklessly chasing speed records, I’m sure that wasn’t cheap.

And the Lawsuits

But now he’s working on a musical he wrote while high on a plane? Lol. LMAO even.

Last edited 18 days ago by Alexk98
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