If you were lucky enough to see Michael Jackson in concert, you know the seemingly impossible star power he exerted on stage and over a crowd. He was a luminous, peerless performer whether he was in an arena on tour or on the small screen dancing his heart out with his brothers as the Jackson 5 on “Soul Train.” When he debuted his robot dance as a teenager, Jackson had only begun to reveal the impact he’d have on not just pop culture, but culture. Period.
The glossy new musical “MJ” lets you know with its first big number — an eye-popping, dance-inducing rendition of “Beat It” — that this is a celebration of the King of Pop enacted by a crew of performers up to the extraordinary task of capturing the essence of the Grammy-winning artist and his music.
