MJ the Musical overview: Dark and dazzling production exposes singer’s late career for the haunted circus it was

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There’s one thing nightmarish about the spectacle of Michael Jackson being endlessly, profitably exhumed by his property: hologram appearances, posthumous albums, a forthcoming biopic, and now this fourth stage present about his life (following the West End’s Thriller Live, and two Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas). But miraculously, MJ the Musical doesn’t really feel like simply one other money seize – and that’s all because of the formidable writing muscle of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Clyde’s), who exposes Jackson’s late career for the haunted circus it was.

Admittedly, the production doesn’t immediately sort out the paedophilia accusations – two sexual abuse lawsuits in opposition to the musician are at present making their means, albeit very slowly, by way of the courts – and maybe a musical may by no means sort out the authorized and ethical complexities of discussing them. But Nottage’s portrait of Jackson, which follows the singer in rehearsals for his wildly extravagant 1992 Dangerous tour, by no means depicts him as the superhero he clothes up as on stage, both.

An exasperated MTV documentarian Rachel (Philippa Stefani), tasked with making a movie about Jackson’s artistic course of, weaves her means by way of the lithe dancers, complaining that she will’t perceive the star with out extra entry to his rigorously hid personal life. Perhaps Nottage was equally commissioned to concentrate on Jackson’s musical artistry over his private struggles, too, however her script’s largest energy is the means it exposes Jackson by way of his songs, exhibiting how he more and more danced to the rhythms of previous traumas.

Flashbacks to Michael’s horrendous childhood present his father Joseph (Ashley Zhangazha) drilling The Jackson 5 like circus animals: when he claps, they flinch. He mocks his younger son’s pores and skin color, his nostril. And as the children slog their means by way of their hundredth take, he fondles junior Motown staff. Michael’s success comes from the grownup ache and self-loathing that fills his voice as the group carry out their childlike numbers. And even when he lastly breaks free, his dad and mom loom massive, director Christopher Wheeldon having them soften in and out of the throngs of acolytes like ghosts.

As the grown-up MJ, Myles Frost strikes with a dreamy, fantastically eerie lightness, whether or not he’s moonwalking, pranking everybody by dressing up as a janitor, or squirting his enterprise supervisor who advises him to mortgage Neverland Ranch with a water pistol. He’s the ringleader of his personal circus now, and having sacrificed his childhood and well being (struggling horrific burns in a stage accident) to another person’s dream, he’s not keen to compromise ever once more – nevertheless financially or morally ruinous the penalties is perhaps.

A spectacular second act quantity, masterfully choreographed by Wheeldon, reveals MJ dueting with dance greats like Fred Astaire and Bob Fosse, steely perfectionism drilled into each bone of his physique (one misstep and he’d be one other Black man condemned to life engaged on a manufacturing unit production line, his father all the time informed him).

Each tune has a message right here: in a single close-to-the-bone scene, MJ’s household swirl round him singing “Money” as they pressure their reluctant money cow again on stage. In an extravagant staging of “Thriller”, MJ is menaced by afro-wigged, sequin-clad zombies from his Motown childhood. Derek McLane’s impossibly lavish scenic design and a universally sturdy solid seize the stratospheric ambition of a singer who needed to be a spaceman, a superhero, an alien.

Of course, MJ was all too human. “Who is this family he wants to bring on tour?” asks a bewildered crew member, in one in all the musical’s periodic nods to the looming abuse scandal. These nods are all too simply overwhelmed by this present’s frenetic whirlwind of choreography and tune, however nonetheless, there’s sufficient darkness right here to tarnish MJ’s over-exploited stardom.

Prince Edward Theatre, till September 2024