Sydney lands major coup as MJ heading to town – who will play the global icon?
Sydney has landed a major theatre production with Broadway’s MJ The Musical coming to town. Who will play the global superstar?
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The search is on for Australia’s Michael Jackson.
Sydney has won a major coup in the entertainment stakes with top Broadway production, MJ The Musical coming to the harbour city.
Producer Michael Cassel has secured the jukebox spectacular that will take audiences inside the creation of Michael Jackson’s iconic 1992 Dangerous World Tour and will include more than 25 of his biggest hits, including Beat It, Thriller, Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal.
The production, from original Broadway producers Lia Vollack, John Branca and John McClain, has been seen by more than a million people on Broadway in New York alone and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning four.
“That is one of the things we are finding – his music is connective tissue, you can go anywhere in the world and you are likely to encounter someone who loves his music and can relate his music to a very specific life experience they have had,” Pulitzer Prize winning author Lynn Nottage, who wrote the script, told The Daily Telegraph. “Michael Jackson changed pop music, the way we listen to music, the way we see music and at a time when it was really difficult for a black artist to get airplay, Michael Jackson was a pioneer. Until Billie Jean, MTV which was the most popular music show, didn’t play any black music, it was Michael Jackson’s popularity that broke that colour line.”
MJ debuted on Broadway in 2021, directed by acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. It will open in London’s West End in March, 2024 and after that in Hamburg, Germany.
The production will open at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre in February 2025 – the latest large scale theatre show to come to town and one of Broadway’s biggest success stories.
In a season where many new shows have struggled to find an audience, MJ recouped its initial capitalisation of $US22.5 million in just 15 months.
An international show of the calibre of MJ would typically bring more than 130,000 people into the state and create hundreds of jobs while injecting more than $80 million into the economy through visitor expenditure.
“Finding the people who will bring this incredible story to life is going to be an enormous undertaking,” MJ’s Australian producer Michael Cassel said. “On Broadway, key members of the original cast undertook an extensive bootcamp prior to rehearsal to learn to execute these challenging roles with the legitimacy that a production of this calibre deserves. We are excited to find the people who will portray this story with the same authenticity and power that audiences have enjoyed on Broadway and soon, on the West End.”
The original production starred Myles Frost in the role of Jackson.
Casting for Australia will begin immediately with Wheeldon offering some timely advice for hopefuls.
“They are very big shoes to fill,” he said. “From the beginning we’ve been very conscious about finding artists who have qualities that lean towards MJ but aren’t in any way impersonating him.
“Actually, many of the actors we’ve had play the role have been first timers so I would say don’t worry or feel insecure about necessarily having a lot of experience on your resume. If you think you’ve got some of the gifts, bring those to us and we will help shape them.”
Wheeldon, who won the Best Choreography Tony for his work on the show, added: “There are lots of fantastic MJ impersonators out there already, this is not a tribute show, it is very much a story and we want young actors to be shining through the brilliance of Michael Jackson rather than trying to recreate, which is of course impossible.”
Tickets will go on sale in 2024 with fans encouraged to join the waitlist at mjthemusical.com.au to be first in line when they are available.
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