‘I I want my music to stay that way,” Michael Jackson said on MJ the Musical. No surprises there. The musical, set during rehearsals for the 1992 Dangerous World Tour, coincidentally a year before the sexual allegations against Jackson were brought to light, wipes out nearly all of the scandal surrounding Jackson. It seems like that. Sure, there’s moonwalking, one megahit after another, and years of biographies, but there’s a distinctly jarring absence. MJ The Musical is a sterile spiral through the life of the King of Pop, but it’s not really a black-and-white story.
Any musical that tells the story of Jackson’s fame will always face some difficult challenges. First, there is a problem that all jukebox musicals encounter. It’s about how to squeeze a well-known song into a concise story. And I feel like I have something fresh to say about a world-wide phenomenon who is also notoriously mysterious. But these issues pale in comparison to the question of Jackson’s own legacy. He has always been a mysterious and highly controversial figure. Ever since his harrowing 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, the repeated allegations of child sexual abuse cannot be ignored.
But Lynn Nottage’s script accomplishes just that, focusing instead on the minds of troubled celebrities. Jackson was nervous about the press, but his manager persuaded him to let two MTV journalists film a documentary about the tour. They originally planned to focus solely on Jackson’s musical journey. But as we watch him take painkillers, request almost unthinkable stunts for the show, and drive already exhausted staff to the ground to work, Jackson’s Peter Pan-like bizarre The truth begins to surface. How can they ignore his personal life in the press?
The musical is backed by Michael Jackson’s estate, which has denied the allegations, and is an advocacy for the superstar’s privacy. A video projection by Peter Nigrini shattered as footage of him being stalked was shown at a press conference. The journalists around him drip with hunger and despair. The blame for Jackson’s megalomania is pushed onto the team, and they whisper, “Someone’s going to have to tell him no.” However, the superstar is by no means the only one at fault, and his actions are largely left uncontroversial.
Jackson (Miles Frost – Shapeshifter) is haunted by visions of his father. There is a sense that everything he does is to prove himself. We run through his rise to fame, Jackson’s early performances on 5 He, and the recording of his subsequent solo albums. His voice is always a unique and captivating wonder. His big hits are greeted with loud cheers from the audience. In Thriller, the stage warps into a garish nightmare, and in the choral version of Man in the Mirror, the woman next to you sings at the top of your lungs. The stage becomes a center of neon lights and gravity-defying dance as MJ The Musical’s wild ideas explode into captivating reality.
It would be remiss to say that Jackson’s songs don’t have an otherworldly magic to them. And he still has many fans, so this move to the West End is sure to sell tickets. But can we really sit in the theater and pretend that his music can live on without scrutiny? Some may be able to distinguish between Jackson’s art and the artist. But when Frost took his final bow and the audience jumped to their feet, I felt sick, even the worst.
