by Sydir
MJ the Musical chronicles Michael Jackson’s entertainment journey to the “Dangerous” tour.
Sometimes a tweet is not enough to express our feelings. When you’re lucky enough to experience something so big, so amazing, and EPIC, you need an unlimited character count and maybe even a Diazepam to calm the emotion. I’m talking about “MJ the Musical,” the Broadway play that chronicles Michael Jackson’s entertainment journey to the “Dangerous” tour.
This is not going to be a spoiler as I will only mention in detail a part of the show that was my favorite. I also wouldn’t consider this a “review” per se, just because I just want to share my experience of watching this amazing show!! I promise you, even if I could pick up a dictionary and throw all of its contents on the floor, I STILL wouldn’t be able to find all the words I need to describe the level of what this show is.
An unforgettable night It was a high school night in New York. I and my older sister Cynna spent the day filming the Nick Cannon show, I had planned to go home and work on my next projects but as any big sister would, she canceled all my plans and set up a dinner, specifically in Times Square. “I want you to meet someone,” she said. “But who?” I asked. “Don’t worry, we’ll meet after dinner,” she replied. I left it at that, I had a headache, tired and above all, very hungry!! We finished dinner and went out to meet her friend. We walked 10 blocks from 42nd St. to 52nd St. “Okay” Cynna said, “I can lie to you more, that’s what we’re here for,” as she pointed to a building decorated with the most beautiful golden lamps. It was the Neil Simon Theater and all I saw were red and black signs that said “MJ THE MUSICAL”.
I screamed, feeling like Michael Jackson himself was right in front of me.
“YEA!!!” Cynna replied as we crossed the street to the theater entrance, slipping under the muddy snow.
At that moment, in my mind’s eye, I was on the red carpet with cameras flashing around me. I mean, the theater carpet is red!
Upon entering the theater, I immediately felt like I was in the family. It was a strange but welcoming feeling. Something I hadn’t felt in a long time. I really can’t remember the last time I felt like this. It was like I’d walked into a party where everyone somehow knew each other.
After we’d taken our seats, I got up and surveyed the theater. It was an ocean of people of all races, ethnicities. This gathering of people was simply the most beautiful proof of how music unites us all!
I was still trying my best not to let the excitement consume me. I was about to explode!
After about 20 minutes of familiarizing myself with the people seated around us, it was time for the show to begin. The stage was covered with a transparent curtain that allowed the audience to see “behind the scenes” as the director counted down:
“Okay Michael, 5 minutes until the curtain…”
“Michael, we have 3 minutes until the curtain…”
“Michael, we have 1 minute until the curtain…”
The theater lights dimmed and you could feel the anticipation of the show starting as the curtain opened to fully reveal a scene of several dancers in rehearsal mode. I had no idea what was going on as the scenes blended in perfectly with each other. The simple stage seemed to come to life as the perfectly choreographed dancers placed props on and off it, completely changing the scene with every move.
The set moved so quickly that if you blinked you would miss something. I had never seen so many moving parts on a stage in my life. I was amazed that each time a scene change took place the ceiling of the stage would come down and then come back to reveal a completely different scene.
One thing that completely captivated me, more than the incredible production of the set:
Myles Frost as Michael Jackson.
Let’s be clear, Myles completely channels Michael in this incredibly flawless performance. The speaking voice, the singing voice, the laughter, every nuance of the Michael Jackson we all know and love, Myles nailed it, leaving no stone unturned….!
Hearing him sing classic after classic took me to places in my mind that I had completely forgotten about. The urge to jump out of the chair every time a crash came on was overwhelming. I had to hold on to the arms of the chair to contain myself. To say he was amazing in that role is an understatement.
I’m still amazed at how the cast was able to direct our attention to one part of the stage, while another part was completely transformed right in front of our eyes. The entire stage changed in the blink of an eye.
I felt like my heart was about to burst with excitement when the break arrived.
The stage went dark and the theater lights came on. I, being as observant as I am, looked around and all I saw was the hallucinatory look on everyone’s faces. Everyone looked like they needed a quick sip of water to process the theatrical grandeur they had just witnessed.
The theater was buzzing with people excitedly discussing their favorite parts of Act 1, I even saw a woman fanning herself in her seat, almost like she was at a real Michael Jackson concert ready to pass out.
The break lasted about 15 or 20 minutes until… Lights out.
The theater went completely dark.
A single spot of light followed ‘Michael’ as he entered from the right side of the stage carrying a small suitcase. He walked to the center of the stage where a stool was waiting. He placed the suitcase on the stool and opened it. The first thing he took off was the famous fedora hat he put on his head, angled to hide his eyes. Then he reached into the suitcase again and pulled out…you know that…the shiny glove. This glove seemed to shine brighter than a Swarovski window display!
‘Michael’ slowly put on the glove… Simultaneously, Billie Jean’s first chords begin to play.
In the characteristic beat of the song, the entire stage lit up. It was like witnessing Michael Jackson’s iconic performance at Motown 25!! In all its simplicity, this set was my favorite because it was just ‘Michael’ and not the theatrics of the stage, the background dancers, other singers, etc. It was literally just ‘Michael’, the stage and the music.
Source: Mjbeats
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
