By Nick Miller
Melbourne is high on the list of cities in talks to host a production of one of Broadway’s newest and most controversial shows: MJ the Musical, a jukebox stuffed with talent and hits, but empty of references to dead superstar Michael Jackson’s history of child sexual abuse allegations.
Myles Frost on stage during the MJ the Musical opening night on Broadway.Credit: Greg Allen/Invision/AP
The musical, starring Broadway newcomer Myles Frost, officially opened at New York’s Neil Simon Theatre on February 1. It was met with a barrage of critical reviews: Variety called it a “slick, crotch-grabbing sidestep” around Jackson’s “complex legacy”, and The New York Times said writer Lynn Nottage – the first woman in history to win two drama Pulitzers – had compromised by “noting [Jackson’s] minor oddities while avoiding the most troubling accusations against him”.
However, reviewers also praised the show’s superbly talented cast and energetic direction by acclaimed ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
On the night this masthead visited, a full house whooped its approval, during and at the climax of the performance. The audience was notably more diverse than the average house for an expensive Broadway production: Jackson remains a superhero in black culture, and the show emphasises the trail he blazed for inclusivity in the music business.
Producer Lia Vollack, who spent two decades as president of worldwide music at Sony – which in 2018 paid US$250 million ($348 million) to Jackson’s estate for the rights to his music – before moving into theatrical production, said they were in preliminary talks about productions outside Broadway.
Veteran Broadway publicist Rick Miramontez said the idea of the show playing in Australia “is inevitable” as we are “one of the major theatre hubs in the world”.
“The show is going to play fabulously all over the world,” he predicted. “It’s just opened so we’re assessing all this by some early indications, business-wise, audience reactions etcetera. The reaction has been explosive.”
He said any territory in the world that “belonged” to Jackson – where his tours and music had proven popular – would “belong” to the new musical in the same way. Melbourne, Tokyo and London were prime markets, he said.
Michael Jackson’s children, Prince (left) and Paris, at MJ the Musical.Credit: Greg Allen/Invision/AP
“I think [in Melbourne] there’s a serious audience that can support a show, can support a musical and it is crucial to the life of MJ [the Musical] for Melbourne to embrace it ... I think Melbourne is in the top five of the cities in the world where if it’s a hit, it had better be a hit there.”
“Michael Jackson and his music writ large is in the DNA of so many people around the world. And the thing I’m counting on, and can be a little cocky about, is when international tourists come back to New York, and domestic tourists come back to New York, there’s one show they’re going to want to see.”
He acknowledged a “disconnect” between the audience and critical reactions.
“[Critics] do not assess a work based on the emotional heft that a work has,” he said. “Everybody’s reaction in relationship to Michael Jackson is mostly through the music, and that is unimpeachably powerful and that is what you see on the stage.”
The show has a long list of producers and co-producers: among them is Sydney-based producer Michael Cassel, who recently brought Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Hamilton to Australia. This makes him the most likely candidate to bring MJ the Musical here, if it happens. Cassel declined to comment on the record for this story.
The show is set during rehearsals for Jackson’s 1992-93 Dangerous tour, and in flashbacks to the singer’s youth. It ends as the tour begins: about a year before new allegations of sexual abuse against Jackson emerged. Though it mentions other controversies such as his plastic surgery, pet chimp Bubbles and changing skin colour, all are dismissed or downplayed.
The closest the show gets to mentioning accusations against Jackson such as those detailed in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck say Jackson sexually abused them when they were children, is a brief, unspecific question from a pack of journalists who are quickly demonised.
The production was developed and produced “by special arrangement with the estate of Michael Jackson”, and the singer’s children made a rare public appearance at the premiere.
Nick Miller travelled to New York as a guest of Michael Cassel Group.
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