REVIEW: MJ THE MUSICAL Is A Captivating Insight Into The Factors That Informed And Influenced The King Of Pop’s Career And Creative Process.

Saturday 8th March 2025, 7:00pm, Lyric Theatre Sydney

Part pop concert, part biography, MJ THE MUSICAL is pure enlightening entertainment that shares the events and experiences that informed and inspired Michael Jackson’s creative process and his career.  With book by Lynn Nottage, Michael Jackson’s iconic hits are used to tell his story in the multi–Tony Award Winning production directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.

The premise of MJ THE MUSICAL is that MTV Reporter Rachel (Penny McNamee), and her cameraman Alejandro (Yashith Fernando) have been given unprecedented access to the rehearsal studios of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour just days before the company is due to depart Los Angeles for the show’s opening in Munich.  The Tour’s manager Rob (Derrick Davis) has allowed the access on the understanding that Rachel wants to show her viewers the creative process behind bringing the King of Pop’s latest concert to the stage and that she is not to pry into the artist’s private life.  As Rachel is given time to interview Michael (Roman Banks), affectionately known as MJ to those close to him, he reveals the facets of his life and career that have bought him to his current success.  These recollections are played out as the MJ watches “visions” of his younger self, from the 8 year old boy soprano (William Bonner on Opening night, role shared with Blaiyze Barksdale, Cayden Dosoruth and Daniel Makunike) that sang with his brothers as the Jackson 5, to the young man (Liam Damons) that eventually left the re-titled Jacksons and went on to forge his own solo career. Along with the  interview, the evolving creative changes that MJ wanted to include into the impending concert and the pushback he receives from Rob and his budget conscious Business Manager Dave (Tim Wright) also stir memories of events and advice that have influenced how he approached his work with a drive for nothing less than perfection from himself and those he worked with with but, unlike his father Joseph’s terrifying control, MJ supported and encouraged his performers to be better. 

With the subject of the work being a multi-talented icon who remains the #1 streaming catalogue artist almost 16 years after his untimely death, MJ THE MUSICAL naturally is anchored by impressive choreography and music with a strong ensemble and band supporting the phenomenal Roman Banks in the lead.  As MJ, Banks captures Jackson’s spoken and singing voice and his physicality.  He delivers the gentle soft-spoken dialogue with clarity and easy recognition and the vocals replicate the ethereal falsetto and powerful pop with perfection.  His dancing replicates Jackson’s famous moves and style thanks to the knowledge and insight provided by Jackson’s former dancers Rich + Tone Talauega. 

Nottage’s choice to write the roles for MJ’s domineering father Joseph, who managed MJ and his siblings’ early careers, and the concert manager Rob, as being doubled by a sole performer, the contrast between the two men tasked with guiding his career is highlighted. Derrick Davis easily slips between the two roles with his subtle shift in physicality and speech pattern most powerful when he is required to deliver both roles in the same scene.  He conveys the unwavering terror that Joseph instils on the young Michael as he pushes his children to achieve what he couldn’t, often through violence, intimidation and insults like the attack on young Michael’s appearance that would later manifest its trauma as a need for plastic surgery to alter his nose.  Conversely Davis presents a caring and sensitive manager who is prepared to risk the perfection MJ strives for to try to convince the dedicated performer to think of his health above the success of the tour.  The role of Motown record founder Berry Gordy is similarly doubled with company manager Nick, requiring Wonza Johnson to shift between a being a guiding force in MJ’s early career and an employee expected to figure out how to meet MJ’s creative direction or pass on messages that Rob didn’t want to deliver to the artist. 

Informed by the Dangerous Tour for which this story serves as a fictional precursor to the tour that would play 69 concerts across Europe, Asia and Latin America, grossing over $100 million, and attended by 3.5 million people, MJ THE MUSICAL is a well-chosen blend of songs from Jackson’s extensive catalogue.  Some iconic songs are performed in their entirety as MJ’s vision that he is trying to convince Rob, Dave and Nick to agree to, are manifested in full light, sound, costume and choreography.  Other songs are presented as part of the conversations with lines selected to serve the story and also reinforce that MJ lived and breathed his art. Others are presented as medleys to express a progression in time and bigger periods of his past that shaped his future.  In addition to the personal experiences that shaped MJ’s process, Nottage shares the influence that Jackson took from studying other performers from a young age with Act 2 including a captivating dance montage that honoured Fred Astaire, Bob Fossey and the Nicholas Brothers. 

MJ THE MUSICAL is a wonderful celebration and insight into Michael Jackson’s artistic process and professional drive.  Anchored at a time prior to much of the controversy that would haunt his later years, Nottage only addresses the concerns that were apparent in June 1992.  Jackson’s dependence on painkillers, which later caused the tour to be cut short, is addressed in a way that highlights the initial trigger being the third degree burns sustained during the making of the PepsiCo advertisement, with his ongoing usage fuelled by the internal monologues that echoed his father’s pushing him to be perfect, forever warning that the world wanted him, as a Black man, to fail.  His childlike antics are also expressed along with an amusing acknowledgment that he planted the report that he slept in an oxygen chamber which was really part of his burns treatment. 

MJ THE MUSICAL is a heartwarming celebration of an artist that broke barriers for Black artists and changed the landscape of the pop music industry and how it is presented for public consumption.  Big budget music clips, songs that spanned genres, concerts that filled stadiums and took jet aircraft to transport across the globe, he was a pioneer and an icon that remains in high demand for old and new fans.  He also led the way for artists and entertainers doing philanthropic work as his compassionate and humanitarian efforts like donating all the profits from the Dangerous World Tour to charity, including his own “Heal The World Foundation” was also a large part of his character.  MJ THE MUSICAL is for all audiences, from the die hard fans to the new generation just discovering his catalogue, it will have you leaving the theatre happy, uplifted, and in smiling awe.

https://mjthemusical.com.au/

Photos: Dayna Ransley for BroadwayWorld Australia

Daniel Boud – Australian Production Photography

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