‘MJ The Musical’ @ Broadway Dallas (Fair Park)
—Ramona Harper
It’s all there: the Moonwalk, the gloved hand, the shiny, military-brass epaulets, the bobby soxer shoes and socks, the red leather jacket and the spooky moves from “Thriller”—and perhaps best of all, more than twenty-five of Michael Jackson’s best-loved hits to take you back to MJ’s heyday.
MJ The Musical, the first show of the 2023-24 Germania Broadway Series from Broadway Dallas, is rocking the stage of the Music Hall at Fair Park in an award-winning show about the idolized King of Pop and his immortal music. But there’s more: MJ The Musical also reveals the human Michael Jackson, the man in the mirror, his personal demons, his unrelenting quest for perfection, and the costly price of fame.
Michael Jackson was a phenomenon in the world of entertainment from the time he started performing at the age of six with his brothers in the Jackson 5. And his prodigious talent lives on, way beyond his earthly journey, still thrilling audiences with dance moves that excite and songs you can listen to a million times and still want to hear again. Jackson changed the entertainment landscape forever, and MJ The Musical captures his stunning legacy.
The story begins in 1992 in a steely gray rehearsal studio in Los Angeles, where Jackson is collaborating with an ensemble of dancers and musicians (and his production manager) for the upcoming Dangerous World Tour. The story flashes back and forth from MJ’s humble beginnings in Gary, Indiana and through the Jackson 5 era to 1992.
A peek into MJ’s psyche inevitably leads to the early influences of a cruel father, Joe Jackson, his nurturing mother, Katherine, and loving brothers who back his lead vocals with talents of their own. Along the way, MJ’s talent is encouraged and guided by Quincy Jones, a musical genius in his own right.
MJ The Musical doesn’t try to hide the human side of Michael Jackson the superstar; rather it openly—and with unexpected candor—exposes his flaws and excesses, his pressures and his struggles, including one against a growing painkiller addiction. On display is the complicated genius of a grown man in pain, still needing healing from a tyrannical father who stole his childhood.
However, the pure joy Michael Jackson gave the world with his incredible talent as an entertainer, and his lifelong humanitarian support to heal the children of the world and the environment overshadow any personal judgments about the King of Pop in MJ The Musical.
Roman Banks stars as Michael Jackson in the national touring production that started off from Chicago in August. MJ The Musical premiered on Broadway in 2022, earning Myles Frost a Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical and three other Tony awards, including Best Choreography for Christopher Wheeldon, who also directed the show. (Wheeldon is director of the touring production as well.) MJ The Musical is still playing on Broadway today, at the Neil Simon Theater.
Called the “greatest entertainer of all time,” how does anyone fill the dancing shoes of Michael Jackson? In addition to having a striking physical resemblance and vocals that sound like him, Roman Banks handles MJ’s unique fancy footwork wonderfully well , and has enough energy to fill a stadium. He delivers a dazzling performance on all accounts.
The audience went wild when Banks first appeared. speaking in MJ’s soft-spoken, almost childlike voice for the first time. Banks’s imitation of Jackson’s conversational voice might sound a bit exaggerated, with a singsong, overly high-pitched lilt, but MJ’s innocent essence still comes through as believable gentleness.
Showstopping, heart-pumping moments happen as Banks glides, smooth as silk, to the thumping rhythm of “Smooth Criminal” and “Thriller.” Cool choreography and a talented troupe of dancers add pure magic to the mix.
Lynn Nottage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote the book for MJ The Musical, craftily weaves the musical numbers together with character development and the story line. For example, Josh A. Dawson as Quincy Jones helps MJ through a period of self-doubt in his early years as a performer, with the moving song “Keep the Faith.” And an ensemble of a dozen tour dancers has ample opportunity to show off their own dancing prowess on songs such as “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” and “Dancin’ Machine” from the days of Soul Train.
Regarding her work on the production, Lynn Nottage is quoted from a 2019 interview in The New York Times saying, “We want this to be a musical that everyone can come to, regardless of how they feel about Michael Jackson, and they will leave with a better understanding of who he was as a human being.”
The entire cast is spectacular, but special shoutouts go to Anastasia Talley as MJ’s mother Katherine Jackson, who sings to the rafters in the Music Hall. She is the light in MJ’s life, always there to throw him a lifeline to rescue him from his tyrannical father (played by Devin Bowles), whose booming baritone scares the bejeezuz out of poor Michael throughout his life. The fantastically talented Brandon Lee Harris as MJ in his teen years clearly is destined to play the starring role as the adult MJ. (That’s a prediction!) And Matteo Marretta, who performs as Fred Astaire during one of MJ’s dream sequences, is pure grace in motion.
Musical direction by Victor Simonson doesn’t miss a beat conducting a band of fine musicians; they keep the soundtrack true to MJ’s dynamic musical creations. Peter Nigrini’s projection design and Natasha Katz’ lighting design spectacularly illumine the stage in blasts of neon colors and shapes, cityscapes, and human images, all perfectly complementing the exciting mood, music, and movement onstage.
Written on the Act II curtain are words copied from Michael Jackson’s handwritten notes. One of them reads, “Study the great and become even greater.” Michael Jackson achieved his lofty aspirations as an entertainer and more.
MJ The Musical is a thrilling tribute to the King of Pop that’s keeping his memory alive today and forever.
WHEN: November 22 through December 3, 2023
WHERE: Music Hall at Fair Park, Dallas, TX
WEB: broadwaydallas.org
