Take extra care when checking your calendar to book tickets for MJ: The Musical. If you’ve got anything remotely important the next day and need a good night’s sleep, be warned: you will be so exhilarated by this performance that you will not sleep.
This is the kind of musical that leaves you feeling new levels of awestruck with each number. The singing, the dancing, the movement, the emotion, the set and costumes, every element prompts moments of stunned looks at your theatre companion. “Is this real?” “Is this humanly possible?”
Of course, with a musical depicting the King of Pop, you expect the highest levels of performance and expertise. What you might not expect is how the story itself unfolds. It’s not an all-inclusive narrative of his life from birth through to death. Instead, it follows Michael Jackson between the “present”, where he is preparing for his Bad Tour, and reflections on his life up to that point, through vignettes that start with the creation of The Jackson 5.
A journalist’s presence in the rehearsal room initially unsettles MJ, who has not done an in-depth interview in 15 years. Rachel’s questions, as well as other interactions within the rehearsal room, spark memories that flood back to MJ and are brought to life on stage.
MJ: The Musical. Photography by Daniel Boud.
We soon meet Young Michael Jackson, Blaiyze Barksdale, and the other Jackson brothers at the very start of their journey. They’re led by their domineering father, Joseph, whose intimidating and oppressive presence is captured expertly by J. Daughtry. These scenes of young Michael and the Jacksons are extraordinary. Blaiyze possesses magical talents well beyond his years, rising to the challenge of depicting someone who also held otherworldly talents at the same age. I was particularly moved by Young Michael’s powerful duet of I’ll Be There with Katherine Jackson, played by Oyoyo Joi, which partway through saw Young Michael switch out with MJ. The show balances these emotional, heartfelt moments with upbeat, feel-good numbers, making both types of scenes equally powerful and standing-ovation-inducing.
The stage is consistently an explosion of colour and perfectly aligned movement. Costumes, set pieces, digital graphics and even the band are whizzed on and off like a complex maths equation. God bless the stage managers of this production.
A real element of success within this story comes from the decision to essentially have two Michaels. We have ‘MJ’, played by Ilario Grant, who is in the present (Bad Tour), and then we have Michael, Liam Damons, who plays Michael in his late teens and early 20s, developing music with Quincy Jones. Having these two switch in and out, or sometimes perform alongside each other, enables the storytelling to step into a different league. Seamlessly, flashbacks and numbers come to life without the delay of costume changes or other tactics to facilitate one actor stepping forward or back in time.
While the design, blocking and choreography are something to marvel at, it would all be null and void without the jaw-dropping talent of this cast, some of whom have come all the way from Broadway and the States to join the Australian tour alongside our amazing local performers.
Debuting in 2022, the show has already collected countless accolades and been watched by 7 million people worldwide. I see this production becoming a staple in the musical theatre zeitgeist and a must-watch for decades to come.
Tickets are on sale now for performances until 19 July from Ticketmaster and mjthemusical.com.au.