Review: ‘MJ’ musical celebrates Michael Jackson’s genius, but leaves behind questions

A scene from the national touring production of "MJ."

The first national tour of the 2022 Broadway jukebox musical plays through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre

March 7, 2024 2:37 PM PT

In the visually spectacular “MJ” musical, playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, there are dazzling song and dance performances of more than two dozen Michael Jackson hits, a multitalented 32-member cast and truly eye-popping lighting and projections.

At the show’s center is the ultra-talented “King of Pop” himself, a whispery-voiced and tortured overachiever who lightly narrates his life story during the 2-1/2 hour show while at the same time revealing very little about himself. As entertaining as the show is, particularly in the stronger second act, Jackson remains an enigma to the end.

The musical’s book was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, who set the story in a Los Angeles rehearsal studio a few days before the launch of Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour. Determined to improve upon his massively successful “Bad” tour from a few years before, Jackson relentlessly pushes himself, his dancers, tour manager and director of finance to the brink for a bigger, fresher and more high-tech stage show (that will ultimately raise $100 million for his Heal the World charity).

Meanwhile, a fictional MTV reporter and cameraman observe rehearsals and interview Jackson, who talks briefly about his family and musical roots. Then the story shifts back in time to 1965 Gary, Ind., where the cruel, physically violent and philandering family patriarch Joe Jackson forms the Jackson 5 from five of his nine children. Charismatic Michael, just 5 at the time, is a star from the start.

In the touring musical production, Michael is played by three actors. On Wednesday night, lanky and sweet-voiced Josiah Benson played Little Michael, Brandon Lee Harris was the teen/young adult Michael and Roman Banks was the adult Michael, billed in the program as MJ. It’s a tribute to Jackson that none of the three can completely measure up to the iconic singer in charisma or vocals, but Banks is an extraordinary dancer and he adds some interesting vocal grit to Jackson’s songs.

In the first act of Wednesday’s performance, the sound mix was off and it was difficult to understand Banks’ wispy voice when he was speaking and, in some cases, singing — particularly when the rock band got going.

Directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, “MJ” re-creates some of Jackson’s iconic dance moves, while bringing newer steps to the mix. The musical also pays much-appreciated tribute to the dancers who heavily influenced Jackson’s dance style, particularly Bob Fosse, Fred Astaire, the Nicholas Brothers and other Black tappers who originated the Moonwalk step decades before Jackson made it famous.

The musical implies that the root of Jackson’s personal and psychological problems were caused by his father, a relentless perfectionist who stole his sons’ childhoods and robbed Michael of his self-esteem. Joe Jackson (menacingly played by Devin Bowles) becomes the zombielike villain in the show-stopping second-act number “Thriller.”

But Joe Jackson is out of the picture by 1992, when Nottage’s script sprinkles a few breadcrumbs that Michael Jackson is headed for disaster. A hinted-at addiction to pain pills will eventually lead to the tour’s premature end. And a line in the script about “a family” joining Jackson on tour may refer to the boy companions that accompanied him on the road. By 1993, the first lawsuits alleging child molestation were filed against the singer.

In “MJ,” Jackson is depicted as a man-child who’s misunderstood, hounded by the press and poisoned by his unhappy childhood. But it also shows Jackson was a unique artist whose writing, singing and dancing talent can never be truly re-created by others.