‘I want to keep this about my music,” says Michael Jackson in MJ the Musical. No surprise there. The musical, set during the rehearsal period of the Dangerous world tour in 1992 – coincidentally a year before any sexual allegations were made against him – seems to wipe away almost all the scandal that surrounded Jackson. Of course, it has moonwalks, one megahit after another and years’ worth of biography, but there’s a glaringly unpleasant absence. MJ the Musical is a sterilised swirl through the life of the King of Pop, but in reality, it is no black or white tale.
A musical recounting Jackson’s fame was always going to face an awkward challenge. First, there is the issue that every jukebox musical encounters: how to squeeze well-known songs into a succinct narrative? Then there is the itch to say something fresh about a figure who was a global phenomenon, yet also notoriously enigmatic. But these problems pale in comparison to the issue of Jackson’s own legacy. He was always a man of mystery and a deeply controversial one at that. Since the harrowing 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, it is hard to ignore the repeated allegations of child sexual abuse.
