MJ • HAMBORG
★★★★☆☆
Photo: Matthew Murphy
REVIEW MJ: MICHAEL JACKSON MUSICAL DIVIDES OPINION
The Michael Jackson myth sparkles like diamonds and is simply too valuable to leave untouched, despite heartfelt attempts to kick The King of Pop out of music history with a boot in the backside after a string of juicy scandals and paedophile allegations.
MJ The Musical is currently playing in Hamburg and other major international musical venues and surprised me by being a little less spectacular than expected.
Photo: Matthew Murphy
The musical, which focuses on the rehearsals for the Dangerous tour in 1992, paints a picture of the creative artist and sublime performer that Michael Jackson was, regardless of how one chooses to interpret his legacy.
The story is not a biographical portrait in chronological order, but a cleverly composed medley of highlights from MJ’s history, taking us from a harsh upbringing through the successes of the Jackson Five to his solo career, which exploded with Thriller and later broke virtually every record in music history.
Photo: Matthew Murphy
His career ended abruptly before the planned, large-scale This Is It concert series with 50 concerts in a row at the O2 Arena in London 2009-2010.
18 days before the premiere, Michael Jackson died of an overdose of propofol (a powerful anaesthetic). Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, was subsequently convicted of manslaughter and served two of a four-year prison sentence.
The excellent documentary film about the preparations for the concert series, which I was also on my way to London to see, gave us a taste of what we unfortunately missed. The rest is history.
While the story itself seems ponderous, told in slow-paced, rather ordinary dialogue scenes, the dance numbers shine with world-class choreography.
With more than 25 of Jackson’s iconic hits, it’s almost impossible to go wrong when you also have set design and state-of-the-art lighting design at your disposal. A couple of poetic interludes, where MJ dances with Fred Astaire and Bob Fosse in Hollywood-inspired dream sequences, raise the artistic level of the narrative, which portrays MJ as a unique, hyper-creative artist from another, better world, but also as a loving, perhaps naive and vulnerable victim of his own show business machine, which just wants more and more.
Photo: Matthew Murphy
The musical steers clear of controversial topics and focuses on its overwhelming stage show, brought to life by a razor-sharp dance ensemble and an excellent backing band that delivers Beat It, Billie Jean, Blame It On The Boogie, Smooth Criminal and all the others, so the roof lifts.
MJ is a must for fans and, despite its somewhat heavy storytelling and blind spots that divide international critics, it is an unconditionally entertaining show at Hamburg’s Theatre An Der Elbe that reminds us what a huge star Michael Jackson was. Enjoy.
Photo: PR
