MJ THE MUSICAL

Prince Edward Theatre

★★★

“a stellar cast and jaw-dropping technical wizardry”

Michael Jackson is one of the most chronicled yet enigmatic pop icons in history. ‘MJ the Musical’ attempts to demystify the legend, exploring the demons that haunt his artistic genius. Despite this ambition, the production only partially succeeds in illuminating a tortured soul, ironically lacking a little heart itself.

‘MJ the Musical’ rewinds to 1992, detailing the tense lead-up to the legendary Dangerous World Tour. Ambition collides with adversity, mounting pressures threatening to derail MJ’s exacting artistic vision. He’s plagued with traumatic flashbacks to his troubled upbringing, and we see the ‘man in the mirror’ as damaged and doubtful, striving for absolute perfection at any cost. Still, a quiet hope lingers. Will it find its voice?

Written by Lynn Nottage, the show has a stylised flair, shifting seamlessly between real-time and flashbacks through a single actor who plays both Jackson’s domineering father and concerned choreographer. The result is a Jekyll and Hyde-esque switch between tenderness and tyranny with an intrusiveness echoing buried trauma. The narrative drive is less strong, sticking to a narrow window in Jackson’s life which sidesteps later controversy. The continued flashbacks start to feel repetitive, despite ending with a slightly more nuanced scene. The dramatic tension goes nowhere: a climactic, nightmarish ‘Thriller’ is followed by a beautiful but narratively underwhelming ‘Man in the Mirror’ (cue megamix). A documentary crew sneaking incriminating footage raises the stakes, only to fizzle out in a rose-tinted dreamscape. The result is a flat emotional arc despite literally being in his head.

Christopher Wheeldon’s direction is sharp, bringing out standout performances across the cast. Scenes are seamlessly integrated with technical elements, the ambitious staging mirroring the scale and spectacle of Jackson’s historic tour. Though the shift to the Hollywood Hills during the final interview, while visually striking, feels a little ungrounded. Wheeldon’s real strength (rightly recognised with an Olivier) is the choreography, moving fluidly through time and space while delivering iconic moves we know and love. It’s sharp, rhythmical and complex, seamlessly blending storytelling into the dance itself.

With music, orchestrations and arrangements by David Holcenberg, Jason Michael Webb and Strange Cranium, the show delivers fantastically rich renditions of Jackson’s pre-1992 classics. The medleys are a particular delight – flashy, fun, and offering welcome reprieve from the confines of the studio. Unusually for a jukebox musical, the songs don’t feel shoehorned in, the rehearsal framework instead offering more freedom. That said, one strength of jukebox musicals is casting familiar songs in new lights, and while ‘Thriller’ is delightfully distorted, most of the other songs remain faithful to their original interpretations.

The technical and design aspects are phenomenal, with scenic design (Derek McLane), lighting (Natasha Katz), sound (Gareth Owen), projection (Peter Nigrini), costume (Paul Tazewell), make up (Joe Dulude II), and wigs and hair (Charles G. LaPointe) uniting in an impressive feat of creativity and execution. The sheer variety is mindboggling, let alone their impeccable delivery. My favourite moment is the ending – no spoilers – which is everything it’s hyped up to be before collapsing in on itself like a black hole. Stunning.

The cast is superb overall, with Jamaal Fields Green and Mitchell Zhangazha absolutely nailing Jackson’s speech, dance and gentleness while delivering flawless vocals. Matt Mills rises to the challenge of the demanding Joseph Jackson/Rob, switching effortlessly between cold and considerate with rich vocals to boot. The ensemble shines in diverse dance styles and heartfelt vocals, though larger numbers lag slightly behind the band. The on- and offstage band is superb, driving the energy throughout.

‘MJ the Musical’ delivers a heartfelt if slightly sanitised glimpse into the mind of a controversial man. It shoots for perfection, landing sheer spectacle, a stellar cast and jaw-dropping technical wizardry. But when it comes to emotional depth, it pulls its punches. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Just don’t expect to learn more about the King of Pop than you already knew.

MJ THE MUSICAL

Prince Edward Theatre

Reviewed on 15th October 2025

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Matthew Murphy

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEAR ENGLAND | ★★★★★ | October 2023

AIN’T TOO PROUD | ★★★ | April 2023

MJ THE MUSICAL

★★★★

“It is sleek, well-oiled and will surely be burning bright for quite some time”

Even with the help of a 1.21 gigawatts flux capacitor and an unhealthy dose of radioactive plutonium, 88 mph seems a pretty modest speed required to propel a rear-engine ‘DeLorean’ through time. But this piece of eighties iconography has no trouble landing on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre in the twenty-first century, swept along by the sheer force of a gravity-defying publicity machine and the collective, kick-starting power of a couple of thousand fans a night, adding to the lightning bolts of energy that burst throughout the auditorium. To say “Back to the Future: The Musical” is spectacular is an understatement. It showers us with special effects, jaw-dropping sets and transitions, blurs of neon, CGI magic and a hi-wattage, fifties/eighties mash up of a soundtrack. It is sleek, well-oiled and will surely be burning bright for quite some time.

But listen closely and you hear some troublesome knocking in the engine. Not enough to stall it and too quiet to worry the crowd, the flaws are invariably swamped by the energy of the performances. It’s a bizarre adaptation of the film; simultaneously faithful to the original but adding quirks and eccentricities that don’t always sit comfortably with the source material. Doc Brown attracts an ensemble of backing singers and dancers like flies. It’s a lot of fun, is wonderfully appealing to the ears and eyes and it breaks the fourth wall. But you wonder why. The music and lyrics of Alan Silvestri and Glan Ballard are crowd pleasing pastiches, with words and rhymes full of witty observation and humour; but sometimes side-stepping into banality. The almost relentless breaking into song takes away from the narrative and the characterisation; we barely have time to take a breath (so how do the cast cope?) and we miss those moments when we can absorb the concepts of space, time and history that the film allowed us to contemplate.

Yet despite being stripped of at least one dimension of their characters, the cast give impeccable performances. Olly Dobson, as Marty McFly, is a dead ringer for Michael J. Fox and is a fireball of energy. When he arrives back in 1955, the moments when his teenage mother (Rosanna Hyland) has ‘the hots’ for him are played for real laughs. (It is bizarre to note that when the film was originally pitched to Disney, the appalled executives rejected it outright, declaring it to be a movie about incest). More emphasis is placed on Marty’s relationship with his dad, George. Hugh Coles gives one of the stand-out performances; lanky and geeky with angular awkwardness, and often hilarious in the way only a highly skilled mover can re-enact ‘bad dancing’. Roger Bart’s Doc Brown is a contagious concoction of quirks, marred only by his over playing to the audience at times.

The special effects, sets and lighting are as much a lead role as the protagonists. Tim Lutkin’s lighting, Finn Ross’ video design, coupled with Chris Fisher’s illusion design, Gareth Owen’s sound and The Twins FX animatronics cannot fail to produce a breath-taking show. Add on the extra layers of Chris Bailey’s sleek, though sometimes excessive, choreography; and musical director Jim Henson’s thirteen-piece band and you have a display that defies the laws of physics. Like the well-worn bumblebee flight myth (it is a scientific and aerodynamic impossibility that bumblebees can fly – yet fly they do) the unconventional components that make up this vehicle should leave it grounded. It shouldn’t do – but it flies. It soars even. Although not timeless, it will stand the test of time and we’ll still be seeing this show in the West End way back to the future.

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Sean Ebsworth Barnes

Tag Archives: Tavio Wright

MJ THE MUSICAL

★★★

Prince Edward Theatre

MJ THE MUSICAL

Prince Edward Theatre

★★★

“a stellar cast and jaw-dropping technical wizardry”