The Michael Jackson Musical: 'MJ'

Some cast is walking around the stage behind a transparent screen that has some handwritten lyrics. They’re acting as if they’re arriving for a rehearsal (since most of the show reportedly takes place in MJ’s studio). Love before-the-show kind of stuff.
 
Really interesting so far! The show balances between showing the creative process of the 1992 Dangerous Tour rehearsals (though a lot of the cast is dressed a bit too modern, especially the MTV reporter), and showing us the progressing of MJ’s career from the beginnings of the Jackson 5 through Thriller (Bad is mentioned in a sentence at the end of the Thriller medley showing that era, but so far seems oddly glossed over - maybe they’ll go back to it in Act 2).
The transitions between past and “present” (1992) are done via topics brought up in the interview between MJ and the reporter. The cast doubles between being MJ’s crew and figures from his past, which creates some very interesting moments (especially Rob the tour manager sometimes being an echo of MJ’s dad Joe, who he also plays - MJ’s dad trauma definitely gets touched on often to show the pressure he feels about the tour).

Some songs are done via rehearsal (though surprisingly not many), some are done as live performances during the scenes set in the past, and some are used in a more traditional musical way as a way of conveying how a character is feeling in the moment (which works in some ways, but other songs like Stranger In Moscow feel a bit awkwardly squeezed in). The latter is how songs from eras after Dangerous are able to be included in the show.

Everyone is giving stellar performances. All three MJ’s - child, 20-something, present - are amazing, with leading man Myles really nailing his voice and mannerisms. The actor playing child MJ is also quite extraordinary, but really, all three shine.

Excited for act two to see how much more of the past gets explored, and also how they fit in songs whose eras already passed in the narrative like Billie Jean and Thriller. Joe’s character sometimes echoes Thriller in his laugh and the music under him, so I’m curious to see how that really gets explored later (if it does at all).

Bring on act two! Will post more thoughts and the track list after (not spoiling myself!).
 
Wow, lots to unpack. Here are my thoughts on Act 2, and the show as a whole, as a continuation of my last post.


I think Act 2 was weaker than Act 1 and showed the general weakness of the show’s plot. The show’s story threads as a whole can be broken down into:

-An MTV reporter and her fanboy cameraman (who doesn’t do much to be honest) get permission to film two days of rehearsals for MJ’s 1992 Dangerous Tour, but she wants more of an inside scoop than just rehearsals. She wants drama.

-MJ is haunted by PTSD from his father’s career-long abuse in the name of making his sons perfect performers, consequently causing MJ to want nothing but perfection in the Dangerous Tour, even if at his own mental expense and possible bankruptcy.

-MJ’s tour directors are frustrated by his perfectionist-to-a-fault nature as they try to reason with him, while also concerned about his addiction to painkillers caused by the infamous 80’s Pepsi commercial accident where he suffered terrible scalp burns.

-Like I said in my first post, as the MTV reporter questions MJ throughout the show, the show uses his answers as segues to both go through his career from childhood to present and to show his father continually haunting him to be perfect.

The only issue is, these plots don’t entirely resolve. In the order of the above plot threads (some spoilers):

-The reporter overhears the managers talking about MJ’s painkiller addiction and is thrilled to have the scoop she wanted, but she soon bonds with MJ when he shows her how he sees the world via the song “Human Nature” (featuring a strange Hollywood paradise realm - I didn’t entirely understand what they were going for with it). Yet, near the show’s end, the reporter tells MJ that she needs to be honest in her MTV piece and that he needs to expect what’s coming. As far as the show implies by the end, MJ is still addicted and will get exposed on MTV by the reporter…?

-MJ’s father haunting him is the only thread that gets real resolution. It culminates in “Thriller”, which takes place in a wild literal circus in MJ’s mind that has his father become a dark circus master controlling him as a puppet, with zombies in decayed MJ costumes crawling around them. This ends with MJ facing a projection of his father’s glowing eyes on a big curtain, which he tears down - seemingly overcoming his father’s ever-looming pressure to be perfect as reality returns around him.

-As the culmination of the directors’ financial worries, MJ decides to mortgage his (in)famous Neverland Ranch to help fund the tour. He’s warned repeatedly that if the tour fails, he’s done for after such a risky move. This is never addressed again. The show ends with the launch of the Dangerous Tour, and I guess the audience is meant to assume all went well and he made the money he needed - but that happy ending isn’t done in a way that I’d say it felt wrapped up.

Generally, the show could use some tightening and clarifications story-wise, but there’s no denying the talent at hand, especially that of lead man Myles in his Broadway debut. His MJ impression, both in behavior and singing, is off the charts. The rest of the cast was stellar too, especially Ayana George as MJ’s mother (her duet with child MJ after his father first hits him, “I’ll Be There”, was incredibly heartwarming and her voice was insanely good).

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, some songs seemed squeezed in just to be there. A surprising number of them were used to convey a character’s feelings rather than being performed in the real-world moment, but they didn’t always entirely land, like “Stranger in Moscow”, which felt rather abrupt to show that MJ was feeling frustrated. But when those kinds of numbers did land, they made for some really interesting moments, like a mashup of “Earth Song” and “They Don’t Care About Us” during a press conference that had MJ try to bring attention to climate issues while the press only nagged him with tabloid-esque questions (this ended Act 1). Another neat example was the use of relatively deep cut “Money” as the Jackson family pressured MJ to join the Victory Tour.

Otherwise, songs were presented as performances in scenes set in the past, or as rehearsals in the “present”. Usually this worked well enough, but the very beginning of Act 2 was arguably the weakest moment story-wise because it was a rehearsal moment that was there purely just for show, without any insight into the tour’s development like the other rehearsal numbers had. It began with MJ rehearsing “Billie Jean”, which drove the crowd wild (and boy did we all go wild several times thanks to the stellar performances), but the song was cut surprisingly short (and sorely lacked the iconic drum-only dance solo that would traditionally end the song live on MJ’s actual tours). Then the brief “Billie Jean” transitioned into a tribute to some artists who inspired MJ. That tribute then evolved into a full performance of “Smooth Criminal” - which I think should’ve been shortened to allow Billie Jean to be longer - with the set transforming into a city street full of neon signs. I had a suspicion as to how all this theatricality would fit into the story, and sure enough, when the song ended, the tour managers came out to say “yeah, we can’t afford this” as the neon signs flickered out and were pulled away. A 10-ish minute theatrical intro to Act 2 was nothing but MJ’s budget fantasy, for the pure sake of having a theatrical moment that didn’t evolve the story. It felt like a very weak way to include those two classic songs and a grandiose set (one they’ve already promoted in photos).

Anyway, sorry for the long post. As a whole, this is definitely worth seeing for the performances, some amazing choreography, incredible audience energy, and solid arrangements of classic songs. But I do think the story needs tightening and more motivation, some outfits were too modern, and the reasoning for some songs’ inclusion should be more polished (and “Billie Jean” needs to be longer, at least with the famous dance solo). It was also disappointing that my favorite song, “Black Or White” (the biggest hit of the Dangerous era, I might add) was only used as part of the curtain call medley, though at least most of the song was used. Lastly, I think the music was way louder than a normal Broadway show and could’ve been lowered considerably.

It was a super fun time as a whole, and I’m excited to see how the show develops.

I’m sure more thoughts will come to me, but for now, that’s all, folks!
 
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^^Thank you very much for your in depth review!

I now understand the "timeline" although I'm still bothered about historic inaccuracies - like money problems in 1992. MJ was full of cash back then and he didn't need to take mortgage on Neverland. He did the whole Tour not to make money, but to raise 100 MIL & for Heal The World foundation. So all that money problem thing is a little bit out of place. Also the painkiller problems started only in 1993 (a year later) but ok.

Can you please elaborate on "allegations" rumor and how they dealt with that? Did they shown MJ as innocent as he was or they leave it to the audience to make their own conclusion?

Thanks!
 
^^Thank you very much for your in depth review!

I now understand the "timeline" although I'm still bothered about historic inaccuracies - like money problems in 1992. MJ was full of cash back then and he didn't need to take mortgage on Neverland. He did the whole Tour not to make money, but to raise 100 MIL & for Heal The World foundation. So all that money problem thing is a little bit out of place. Also the painkiller problems started only in 1993 (a year later) but ok.

Can you please elaborate on "allegations" rumor and how they dealt with that? Did they shown MJ as innocent as he was or they leave it to the audience to make their own conclusion?

Thanks!

It was made clear that MJ was doing the tour for charity, but the funding of the tour being problematic was definitely a major plot point of the show.

Do you mean the allegations about the children? The closest thing to that being mentioned was during the Earth Song/TDCAU medley when a reporter went something like “what do you think of the allegations-” before being cut off by the music, with those allegations never being specified or commented on.
 
It was made clear that MJ was doing the tour for charity, but the funding of the tour being problematic was definitely a major plot point of the show.

Do you mean the allegations about the children? The closest thing to that being mentioned was during the Earth Song/TDCAU medley when a reporter went something like “what do you think of the allegations-” before being cut off by the music, with those allegations never being specified or commented on.
Thanks for the answer!
 
It was made clear that MJ was doing the tour for charity, but the funding of the tour being problematic was definitely a major plot point of the show.

Do you mean the allegations about the children? The closest thing to that being mentioned was during the Earth Song/TDCAU medley when a reporter went something like “what do you think of the allegations-” before being cut off by the music, with those allegations never being specified or commented on.
wow
 
@rpvee Can you please comment on the songs also. Is every song fully live (live band + live vocals by the actors)? Or is there any per-recorded album music and real MJ vocals?

Also can you name some songs (or all that you can remember of) so we can try to get a picture of a set list.

Thanks!
 
@rpvee Can you please comment on the songs also. Is every song fully live (live band + live vocals by the actors)? Or is there any per-recorded album music and real MJ vocals?

Also can you name some songs (or all that you can remember of) so we can try to get a picture of a set list.

Thanks!

It’s possible that some song elements were tracks (like sound effects), but I can guarantee all of the vocals and at least most of the music was live. Sometimes it sounded like Myles had a second layer to his voice, but I think that was just an effect. MJ’s actual voice is not in the show. Ironically, this show is more live than MJ’s 90’s tours were.

And sorry, forgot to include the song list! The Playbill (programme) only lists the songs in alphabetical order, and I can’t remember their order exactly, but:

2 Bad
ABC
Bad
Beat It
Billie Jean
Black or White
Blame It on the Boogie
Can You Feel It
Climb Ev’ry Mountain
Dancing Machine
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
Earth Song
Ease on Down the Road
For the Love of Money
Higher and Higher
Human Nature
I Can’t Help It
I’ll Be There
I Want You Back
Jam
Keep the Faith
The Love You Save
Man in the Mirror
Money
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
Price of Fame
Rock With You
She’s Out of My Life
Shout
Smooth Criminal
Stranger in Moscow
Tabloid Junkie
Soul Train Theme Song
They Don’t Care About Us
Thriller
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
You Can’t Win

Some of these are other artists’ songs that were featured when MJ envisioned his inspirations. Some songs were also sung more than once via reprises, and some were cut down a lot and/or mixed around.
 
Thank you very much! You are amazing!

Really diverse set list! I assume Shout is not MJ song Shout from Invincible era?

I'm also really glad that they included 2 Bad, Tabloid Junkie and Money instead of Scream. In my opinion these are all better songs than Scream but they are always in the shadow of Scream. Great choice!

Interestingly, there are just 3 "Bad" songs.. I expected Dirty Diana and The Way You Make Me Feel. Also, very few Dangerous era songs, especially since it's Dangerous Tour rehearsals. I expected Remember The Time, Will You Be There and Heal The World for sure, maybe even Who Is It also.

Surprised to see Keep The Faith and I Can't Help It and really surprised to see Price Of Fame!

All in all, great and very diverse set list.
 
Sounds great.

And very happy to hear Price of Fame is included! - That song is amazing and should have a proper release.
 
Merchandise is also available inside the theater! broadwaygirlnyc from Instagram. #MJtheMusical
https://twitter.com/sebasmjjj/status/1468029342676512772/photo/1

FF986CfXwAASArj
 
merlin_198901701_60e6edeb-68ef-4c00-bb16-6e80bd6bc853-jumbo.jpg

Flashbacks to earlier chapters of Jackson’s career are prompted by questions from a documentary filmmaker played by Whitney Bashor, shown with Frost.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

There is an article in the New York Times. Although it is overall a pretty decent review, I don't like the "bad dig" the author made
against Michael in the stupid title to his piece. So, I have chosen just to post, instead, the nice picture above without the article.
You can see the link below. One thing the author had to admit was that no one in attendance at the play gave a damn about
what he might think. The attendees just LOVED seeing the genius of MJ on the stage
The New York critics don't matter when it comes to MJ the Musical.
😋😎🤗🥰
 
It was absolutely to be expected that non biased reviewers would be critical about shunning the allegations. Wether you like it or not it is a flaw for sure in the show.
 
I choose to not follow anyone down
"that rabbit hole".🐇😋🐰
 
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">bloop! Both MJONE in Las Vegas and MJ The Musical both sold out tonight .. yep yep The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MichaelJackson?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#MichaelJackson</a> Effect 🔥🔥 <a href="https://t.co/UzFY178DVU">https://t.co/UzFY178DVU</a></p>&mdash; MJJJusticeProject #1Billion4MJ (@MJJJusticeprjct) <a href=" ">December 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
So glad to hear that the show is (so far) a commercial, critical, and fan success.

For those who aren’t familiar with Broadway, the show is currently in “previews,” meaning that it’s basically not 100% finished. Between now and the official opening in January, the show will go through revisions and changes. Sometimes they’re minor (new dialogue, different costumes, etc), and other times they’re major (cutting songs or scenes entirely). Hopefully the faults in the plot can be attacked and amended by the official opening.

Nevertheless, this is making me so happy. I can’t wait to get out there and see it!
 
@AlwaysThere

So who are the people in attendance? I take it it are die hard fans? I'm still cautious about both reviews and sales if this isn't the official start yet.
 
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