Talks underway to bring MJ the Michael Jackson musical to Melbourne

The “explosive” musical showcasing the life of controversial superstar Michael Jackson may be on its way after premiering in New York.

Broadway producers are in talks to stage the Michael Jackson musical, MJ, in Melbourne in 2024.

MJ, which premiered in New York last month, is based on the life, music and showmanship of the controversial superstar who had a profound influence on pop culture, and made one of the biggest selling albums of all time, Thriller.

Powerful Australian theatre identity, Michael Cassel, met with Lia Vollack, the show’s lead producer on Broadway, and leading US publicist Rick Miramontez in New York last week.

Mr Cassel, producer of blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Hamilton, declined to comment on plans to bring MJ Down Under.

The Michael Jackson Musical premiered last month.

However, Mr Miramontez said: “The idea of the idea of the show playing in Australia, one of the major theatre hubs in the world is inevitable, and I think the show is going to play fabulously all over the world.”

He said the reaction to MJ on Broadway had been “explosive,” adding: “We have a style of theatre called the jukebox musical, where expectations are a little lower in terms of art.

“But what MJ has delivered is something so extraordinarily surprisingly artful, it’s potentially lightning in a bottle.”

Producers hope to stage MJ in Australia in 2024, pending theatre availability.

The musical, which includes Jackson hits Beat It, Billie Jean, Thriller, Black Or White, Man In The Mirror, and many more, is based on a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Lynn Nottage.

The story is centred around Jackson’s preparation for his Dangerous World tour.

The setting, in 1992, cleverly avoids controversial subjects including child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson that surfaced a year later.

MJ — played by three actors — covers different eras of his career, from child prodigy to Jackson 5 stardom, to Off The Wall and Thriller success, and personal and professional pressures in the lead up to the Dangerous tour.

The latter period includes references to painkiller addiction after Jackson was badly burned while filming a Pepsi commercial.

Jackson died in 2009 from an overdose of the sedative, Propofol. He was 50.

Asked if MJ producers were concerned about the controversies surrounding Jackson’s life, Mr Miramontez said: “Everybody’s reaction and relationship to Michael Jackson is mostly through the music. That is an impeachably powerful and that is what you see on the stage. It’s a very solid emotional event.”

He said MJ is the perfect post-pandemic tonic.

“We’re all assessing our lives,” Mr Miramontez said. “The thing musical theatre can do is provide a layer of joy … and aspiration. This show is perfectly calibrated … for that kind of experience, because Michael Jackson and his music is in the DNA of so many people around the world.”