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A show isnt a deposition; a musical isnt a witness statement.
A series of songs, strung together by a combination of managerial and commercial interests, isnt an argument.
Remember who Michael Jackson was?
Not everyone wants to; certainly not everyone agrees on how to do it.
In a giant rehearsal room, backup dancers and singers stretch and mark their choreo.
Five minutes to Michael!
the stage manager calls out, and these aimless movements take on crackle and focus.
His name runs among them like a current, as it does in the audience.
This rehearsal room is the home base ofMJ:It is its present day, its safe space.
Sometimes we hear numbers as part of these flashback scenes; others are part of the rehearsal.
And although you cant say every song is a killer, most of them are.
or sort of cloy-baffle (any part of Earth Song).
A handful we hear Thriller twice are also the best pop songs ever written.
I didnt know what to expect when I met you.
It is not a coincidence that 1992 was also the year before Jacksons first child-abuse accusation.
This little sleight-of-script is not the smooth move they hope it is.
The big scandal here was the hyperbaric chamber.Okay.
Is it possible to make a show about a man whose memory dwells under deep shadow?
Of course it is.
Its important to include the dark sides of a mans character when you tell his story?
The irony is so ripe here it hasrotted.
Nottage is having a huge season.
Every moment when people are speaking instead of singing feels wrong.
As a concert, it could simply elide all those inconvenient and tragic elements of the Michael Jackson legacy.
So why isnt it one?
MJ: The Musicalis at the Neil Simon Theatre.
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