My wife and I went to Proctors Theatre on Wednesday, December 4th, to see the touring company of the Broadway musical MJ. We had planned to attend the following weekend, but a more intriguing offer arose.
I thought it was funny when several dancers were working out on stage, and some people behind us complained. “Why are they stretching now? Why didn’t they do that backstage?” They didn’t recognize that this was part of the actual show, as I had suspected. “Five minutes before Michael!”
It isn’t easy to separate the show from what one already knows about Michael Jackson, and I know a lot. The trick about these so-called jukebox musicals is that you can’t just have a whole string of songs together in a “then he sang” order.
For instance, I thought Michael’s mother Katherine, who was much more supportive without being nearly so harsh, was involved in one of the early great performances, singing I’ll Be There with Little Mike, and contemporary Michael. Here’s a guide to the songs
It’s like the 1992 Dangerous concert that MJ and his troupe were preparing for. You have to have a narrative flow. Michael was an artist with a vision who never wanted to hear “No.” Everything had to be bigger and better, even when it didn’t make sense financially.
A different Joe Jackson
The production made much of this, rooted in his never-satisfied father, Joe, who pushed his sons to form what became the Jackson 5. He could see that Michael had the greatest potential for success. Joe was a failed musician who put his dreams aside in favor of factory work and raising a family of nine. He was living through Michael, and he could be brutal to his son. You can’t live on your laurels.
The MTV reporter who hung out around the rehearsal intimated some of the rumors about Michael sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, getting plastic surgery, and bleaching his skin. Michael mostly sidesteps them.
Possibly the most interesting feature is that the same actor plays the guy playing his father and the guy playing his manager, and sometimes, they blend together in Michael’s mind.
Ultimately, I think it was a decent musical, although I thought the first half of the Lynn Nottage script was much stronger than the second.
I was reading someone’s comment that the main character (Jamaal Fields-Green) occasionally disappeared. Many interviews I’ve heard featured that high-pitch, fairly monotone vocal pattern.
I enjoyed the show for what it was, though I was happy that songs were unfamiliar to some of the audience so I could experience the performers. The MJ tour continues through August 2025.
Mildly off-topic: Unreleased Michael Jackson Tracks Discovered in Abandoned Storage Unit
