Michael Jackson Bio-Musical

Will @theatremonkey.com be auditioning for the role of Bubbles?

Cirque du Soleil have had a couple of goes with this already. Michael Jackson:One has been playing in Las Vegas since 2013.

Premiering in Chicago in October before heading to Broadway in 2020.

Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph the show, which will focus on Jackson’s career in his 20s–30s, incorporating the music icon’s hits and a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.

www.playbill.com/article/michael-jackson-musical-dont-stop-til-you-get-enough-will-premiere-in-chicago-before-broadway

^ There's more than enough room for two MJ musicals at the same time. I also think they'll operate on different markets and have a completely different model.

I get the feeling the Michael Jackson estate will pull the theatrical rights much like Rudin did with To Kill a Mockingbird.

The only positive to this is the potential closure of Thriller.

I'm guessing it may have to do with this. www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a26342612/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson-documentary-channel-4-trailer-release-date/

The biggest difference is that Leaving Neverland only interviews 2 accusers and their family - there’s no investigative journalism included. Which is a shame, as the film makers would then have discovered that one of them has repeatedly defended MJ for 20 years, claiming he was never abused - going as far as to stand up in court and defend MJ in his 2005 trial, and perform in Janet’s 2009 MTV tribute to MJ.

He only began saying he was abused after MJ died and his estate declined his request to direct a Cirque Du Soleil show about MJ. A year later he was shopping a book (that no one would publish) and the other accuser in the documentary states he only realised he was abused after hearing what the other was claiming publicly.

Both tried to sue the estate (same representation) for $1.5B and a judge dismissed the case in 2017... which has an appeal later this year.

Abuse is terrible - in any form - but I don’t understand how any respectable film maker or network (HBO) can create a series designed to destroy a dead man without a shred of evidence, on the word of people who stood up in court, defended their supposed abuser (when he was on trial for abuse) and are currently trying to extract money from the estate.

is this replacing Thriller then?

We can but hope that it never does. Unless it is absolutely honest about his flaws, I have no desire that any theatre is polluted with a celebration of his life in any form. His music I can separate - but his life does not deserve celebration.

So let me get this right. She believes that Michael Jackson abused young boys for years but still wants to write the book for a musical about him? A musical that's called 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'? What kind of cloud cuckoo land is she living in? Someone take that Pulitzer Prize away, she clearly can't be trusted with it!

Odds of the show having a new book writer by the the time it makes it to Broadway?

The show should be boycotted. Simple as that.

I have no issue with MJ music being played on the radio - but I will reserve the right not to listen to it.

But I have serious issues about his life being given the Broadway treatment.