Musicals have embraced nostalgia almost since their inception but lately we’ve reached a critical mass of shows that lean on our collective memories as a shortcut to our hearts and minds. Riding on a wave of music and stories that connect powerfully and sensorially to our past, we’ve been primed to accept, with little complaint, a show like MJ the Musical.
MJ is a perniciously nostalgic, baldly propagandistic celebration of Michael Jackson, a show that takes advantage of our love for looking back to distract from the ways the artist’s legacy has been tarnished by a raft of devastating allegations of child sexual assault.
