Michael Jackson is resurrected in 'MJ', at least partly

 

       At the beginning of this new biomusical, an MTV reporter asks her subject if he can separate the man from his work. It seems the answer is no because we get to know plenty about Michael Jackson’s work but little about him apart from it.

     When I first heard a musical about Jackson, now called MJ, was in development I wondered how its creators would handle the multiple allegations of pedophilia.  They don’t.  The show now at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre, under Christopher Wheeldon’s direction, only takes Jackson’s story up until 1992, about a year before these stories began to surface.

     Whether that matters isn’t so important to me now that I’ve seen the show.  Had I experienced the spectacular musical I was expecting, based on the fact that Jackson was one of the most talented performers of my generation, I would have had qualms about praising it and encouraging people to go.  I didn’t think I could condone a show that celebrated the artist and ignored the possible criminal activity that capped his life.. 

     Instead, I found MJ to be disappointing.  The music was guaranteed to please and it did.  The performances are great but the character of Jackson is one-dimensional.  By the middle of the second act I was getting bored with him. 

     The show’s Jackson, powerfully portrayed by Myles Frost, was driven to work, work, work but he is never shown as happy.  He had no close relationships.  Although he sang with his brothers when they started out as the Jackson 5, they didn’t seem to relate to each other as family.  He has one snuggly moment with his mother (Ayana George) when he is a child (a charming Walter Russell III last night, alternating with Christian Wilson).  She holds him and sings “I’ll Be There,” but her nurturing is overwhelmed by Jackson’s strongest relationship, the one he had with his father (Quentin Earl Darrington).  Much has been written about this man’s cruelty in driving his children to exhaustion and his demands that they be perfect.  No wonder the adult Michael is popping pills by the handful in his quest to best himself with each new album or tour.

     If this show were about a fictional character we would say he needed to experience some change or growth but that never happens. The character is static throughout. 

     I’m surprised the musical’s book writer, Lynn Nottage, agreed to take part considering that the work would be produced “by special arrangement with the Michael Jackson estate.”  That almost ensures that the writer, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Ruined and Sweat), would have her hands tied.

     Not only is the lead character underdeveloped, but so is the plot.  Set in a Los Angeles rehearsal studio in 1992 (scenic design by Derek McLane), the show opens as dancers, back-up singers and a band are preparing for Jackson’s Dangerous tour of four continents in a 15-month undertaking. Flashbacks recall his difficult childhood followed by success after success as an artist, the work side of Jackson only.   

     Maybe I was right in the first place, that a musical about Michael Jackson shouldn’t have been written, even though he certainly had a full body of work to celebrate and success unequaled.  His “Thriller” album is the biggest-selling record of all time and he sold a total of more than a billion records worldwide.  

     Jackson was only three years younger than I so I have been listening to his music most of my life.  And I enjoyed hearing it again.  This time I even felt it because the amplification is so intense the floor and seats vibrate.  Really.  I have never been so grateful for my earplugs.

     Of course, Michael Jackson wasn’t just music.  He was movement and Frost captures his fluidity and grace like a reincarnation of the man himself.  In addition to directing, Wheeldon choreographed the electric dance numbers.  I certainly was never bored by them.  

     Authenticity-wise, Paul Tazewell recreated those brilliantly colored Jackson 5 suits and the sharply contrasted look of the adult Jackson’s trademark white shirt and black pants. 

     Maybe some day a creative team will have the freedom to tell the full story of Michael Jackson.  With the abundance of talent and conflict in the man’s life, it could be mesmerizing.