As both the Dangerous tour director and Jackson’s overbearing father Joseph, Quentin Earl Darrington (who looks a bit like Dwayne Johnson’s less beefy brother) navigates between those roles in several scenes. The setup sounds clunky, but most of the transitions between past and present are seamless, thanks to Wheeldon and also to cast members portraying more than one role. “It’s not the old songs,” he tells her of his reticence to sing his former group’s hits. A quick exchange with the MTV producer (played by Whitney Bashor) or a rehearsal of an older Jackson 5 hit triggers Jackson, pulling him back in time to remember either a happy or painful moment in his life. The show recreates some of Jackson’s career milestones, at least until 1992: rehearsing with the Jackson 5 in their home, meeting Berry Gordy (who signs them to Motown), collaborating with Quincy Jones on Off the Wall and Thriller, being handed Grammy after Grammy, reuniting with his brothers for the semi-botched Victory reunion tour.Īs we watch Jackson and his team fine-tune the Dangerous show, those moments in time are woven into the story as flashbacks. Written by Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and directed by Christopher Wheeldon, the British choreographer known for his work in the ballet world, MJ doesn’t completely dispense with the standard bio-musical narrative tradition. They’re promised behind-the-scenes access to watch the show come together and interview the notoriously press-shy star, who hasn’t granted an interview in (the show says) in 14 years. Also mimicking real life, they’re joined on this day by the above mentioned fictional MTV producer and her cameraman, there to make what the camera guy calls a “puff piece” promoting the tour. It’s 1992, a few days before Jackson’s Dangerous tour is scheduled to start, and Jackson and his team are putting the finishing touches on the show. As theatergoers are still finding their seats, cast members (portraying backup dancers, musicians and technicians) begin wandering onto the set, which is made to resemble a workaday warehouse space. Produced with the cooperation of Jackson’s estate, MJ makes it clear from the start where it won’t be venturing. How True Is 'Respect'? Fact-Checking the Aretha Franklin Biopicħ0 Greatest Music Documentaries of All Time You’ll leave the Neil Simon Theatre (where the show opens tonight) both on a giddy high from Jackson’s music but also grappling with what was and wasn’t incorporated. But from its equally beloved and debated subject to its often inventive structure, MJ is far more unconventional - and far more complicated - than previous shows on the sagas of the Four Seasons, Cher or Carole King. Bio-musicals have come to be a tourist-friendly tradition on Broadway. It gives you all the answers you need.” Yet that original question hovers throughout the two and half hours of MJ, finally premiering on Broadway after a lengthy Covid-relayed delay.
Returning to the topic later in the show, Jackson also tells her, “Listen to my music. Jackson, played by Myles Frost down to the trademark billowy white shirt, curly ponytail, and feathery voice, demurs: “I want to keep this about music.” To which the reporter responds, “Is it possible to separate your life from your music?” In the first of several such scenes in MJ, the new Broadway musical about one of the pop’s most explosive and, now, polarizing figures, a fictional MTV reporter tries to get Michael Jackson to open up.
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