MJ The Musical!

 Before MJ The Musical begins, people wander around on stage. It's kind of confusing at first as we see people walking into what seems to be a rehearsal studio. We get a man keeping time by shouting 5 minutes to Michael, 3 minutes to Michael, 1 minute to Michael as the performers stretch and dance and do yoga. Then in comes Michael, to great applause. We then get Beat It, complete with the Eddie Van Halen solo. The musical then begins to explain the story of the Jacksons, The Jackson 5 and Michael himself.

MJ is preparing for the 1992 Dangerous Tour. His perfectionism and quirky wants and needs are driving people crazy. His manager fights him on safety issues; his accountant fights him on money issues. It's a disaster in the making. An MTV journalist shows up to interview Michael and thinks she's going to break through. But he has conditions. Only musical questions. This is the catalyst for the story.

We go back in time to Michael with the Jackson 5, the domineering father Joseph Jackson, the brothers and the abuse as the Jacksons try and please Dad to no avail. We get the Apollo; the Ed Sullivan show and the gigs in places long in the past. Hit after hit put the pressure on Michael as the front man.

Michael grows up, physically at least, and goes out on his own. Meanwhile, we go back and forth in time from the troubled 1992 MJ to the Thriller MJ. Will the tour even happen? Those are all questions answered at the end of the musical. We get references to Bubbles, the hyperbaric chamber, the pill popping, and even a short reference to the "allegations". But since MJ the Musical is approved by the Jackson Family, that's as far as it goes. Well ok, but it's all about the music. As Michael tells Rachel the MTV interviewer, "listen to my music and it will answer any questions you have".

Now the performances. Jordan Markus is adult MJ, speaking in a constant whisper and nailing the moves and the voice. He is phenomenal. Devin Bowles plays Joe Jackson AND Rob the tour manager. He moves from one character to the next in the blink of an eye. He is a brutal money hungry grifter one instant and the caring father figure of Rob within seconds. He's great also. The young Michael and teenaged Michael, played by Quentin Blanton Jr and Erik Hamilton respectively. Those kids have great voices and great presence. Anastasia Talley plays Katherine Jackson, their mother, with a sense of keeping the family together to matter what. She gets a solo song towards the end that had the audience cheering as it well should. Her voice is perhaps the best in show. Rachel the journalist is played by Cecilia Petrush, and she is basically the narrator. She doesn't sing much but sets the tone for the story's back and forth timeline. She's kind of irrelevant to the story to be honest. I found her cynical cameraman, played by Anthony Garcia, to be the comic relief and it was apparent he's a stage veteran.

The background dancers and singers do their job with flair and great dedication. It's a good cast.

So now what about MJ the Musical as a 2 1/2-hour experience. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Sure. Is it too long? Yes. Was the music great? Yes. Was the band superb? Yes. So, what's not to like?

No idea. It just struck me as cold. Like the Tina Turner musical, it was musically brilliant, but the story didn't grab me. I guess it's just a matter of taste. If you want a Vegasy impersonation and legends show you'll love this. If you prefer a story, warts and all, maybe it just doesn't get there for you. That's me. It fell just short.

However, we do get the 3 things MJ started. We get the robotic moves of Soul Train, the moonwalk of Billy Jean on the Motown at 20 special, and finally the lean of Smooth Criminal (my favorite MJ song).

Stick round after the curtain call as you get a real jam session where all the minor characters get to show their chops. 

The sound sucked as usual at the Orpheum, perhaps the whispery voice of MJ contributed to that but the music was grand. The crowd was kind of lukewarm, perhaps due to the fact MJ's core audience is now over 60 and not quite as energetic as the kids on stage.

Should you see it? Yes, of course. It's fun for us old folks to remember our youth.