BWW Reviews: THRILLER LIVE!, Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, May 26 2011

One thousand Thriller Live! performances ago, AdrIan Grant Wanted To Be Startin' Something - a Michael Jackson tribute show in the West End. Dangerous thinking? Not really - in fact it was not a Bad idea at all, with millions of records sold and songs that measure our lives - I can't hear the opening bars of Off The Wall without tasting the combination of lipstick and tobacco that characterised my er.. luckier teenage parties. As a show concept, you couldn't Beat It and soon audiences felt that they had Just Got To Be There and Wouldn't Stop 'til They Got Enough.

If reading that rather stilted paragraph set a few tunes running through your mind, then you'll know exactly what you're getting at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue - hit after hit after hit. Beginning with a photo-montage of Michael that flashes backwards in time from the strange whitish humanoid to the angelic black manchild, few favourites are left out of a packed two hours (though I'm disappointed that MJ's love song to a rat, Ben, failed to make the cut). With four main singers who nail the famous falsetto (most of the time) and an energetic dance troupe who recreate the fast cut MTV visual style in a dizzying collection of moves and costumes, it's an all-action show that pleases a crowd keen to be pleased - after all, you don't buy a ticket to Thriller Live! unless you're a fan of the man.

But don't expect anything beyond the hagiographic. This is not a night to explore the extraordinary cultural complexity of "Michael Jackson" - and there's plenty worth exploring. In a past life, I gave a two hour lecture solely on the differences between the sublime video for "Show you the way to go" and the pompous posturing of "Can you feel it" - just three years in which a lot happened. But the kid who watched cartoons like any other kid (but unlike the other kids, saw himself animated in those cartoons) was never going to have an easy relationship with media.

Oh yes - one more thing. James Anderson (pictured) - remember the name. He plays the twelve-year-old Michael and has a star quality you see very rarely indeed. He might not become as big as MJ himself, but he'll be big all right.

So if you're one of MJ's many millions of fans, I can recommend a visit to Thriller Live! as an excellent way to spend, yes, you're there before me, One Day In Your Life.

 

 

 

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