Michael Jackson show opens on Broadway WITHOUT mentioning singer’s ‘pedophile’ past
A hotly-anticipated Broadway musical about Michael Jackson makes only a throwaway mention of the singer’s alleged pedophile past – with one of its writers even questioning whether two of the singers’ accusers were telling the truth.
MJ: The Musical, which began previews at the Neil Simon Theater on December 6, is set in 1992 – the year before allegations against Jackson emerged in public, but well after he’d met at least one of his accusers.
The show which runs for two hours and 30 minutes, barely makes mention of Jackson’s sordid past. Reviews of the show say the allegations were addressed in one simple throwaway line delivered by one of Jackson’s managers: ‘Who the hell is this family he wants to bring on tour?’
One tweeter was skeptical about a musical lionizing the alleged child abuser, writing: ‘way to celebrate a pedophile,’ while another Twitter commenter suggested that Jackson, who died in 2009, is simply too big a figure in pop culture to cancel.
Meanwhile, she show’s writer Lynn Nottage has flip-flopped on whether she believes the claims Jackson is an abuser, saying she felt two of his accusers were truthful in 2019, only to query whether their claims were accurate in a separate interview weeks later.
In 1986, the singer met James Safechuck, a 10-year-old boy who appeared with him in a Pepsi ad. Safechuck would later go on to recount his allegations of sexual abuse against the pop star in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.
By 1993, a year after the Dangerous Tour kicked off, Los Angeles police was already investigating claims that Jackson molested four children.
Early reviews for the jukebox musical, which stars Myles Frost as Jackson (above), reveal that there are little more than passing references to sexual abuse allegations against the singer
MJ: The Musical is already onstage for previews at the Neil Simon Theater. Its official opening night is on February 1
Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, faced charges of child molestation, abduction and extortion but was acquitted in 2003
In the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, James Safechuck and Wade Robson (right) revealed that the King of Pop sexually abused them numerous times as children. Above, the pair during a 2019 BBC interview
The musical was written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.
It is produced by Jackson’s estate and Columbia Live Stage and features 37 songs from the singer’s iconic catalog, though it mostly focuses on the music up to the 1992 Dangerous Tour, the main setting of the show.
‘The show is very much anchored in one particular moment in time,’ Wheeldon told Playbill in 2018.
‘I always bring up the fabulous movie that Spielberg made about Lincoln: You take one key moment, I suppose, in the history of someone’s life and then sort of use that as an anchor point for past storytelling and, perhaps, some kind of prophecy of what’s to come. We’ll be doing that with this story.’
It stars Myles Frost as Jackson and Quentin Earl Darrington as Joseph Jackson. Frost joined the cast in June after Ephraim Sykes left to film a movie, according to Deadline.
Tickets for the show range from $59 to as high as $225 for orchestra seats.
In 2019, Nottage told the Daily Mail that she believed Safechuck and Wade Robson, who detailed his allegations alongside Safechuck in the extensive HBO documentary, were ‘telling the truth’ – but just days later she queried the veracity of men’s allegations in a separate interview.
Speaking to the New York Times, she said: ‘Were they ultimately telling the truth? I cannot 100 percent say so, because I’m not judge and jury, and it’s not my place to do that.’
Playwright Lynn Nottage first told Daily Mail that she believed Safechuck and Robson were ‘telling the truth,’ but later told the New York Times, ‘I cannot 100 percent say so’
During the course of the four-hour film, Safechuck and Robson offered explicit details about the years-long abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Jackson, during which the singer would allegedly gain favor with the boys’ families by arranging for them to travel with him.
The film accuses the King of Pop of even staging a mock wedding complete with vows and a diamond ring with Safechuck.
Wade and Robson both claimed they were molested by the singer in his expansive Neverland ranch in Santa Barbara County, California.
‘Michael tried to penetrate me in my anus with his penis, trying for a while, and I guess was able to a bit, but it was really painful, too painful for me, so he stopped,’ Robson said, adding that he was 14 at the time.
When asked if Jackson’s estate would let her explore Jackson’s life in full, Nottage said: ‘I hope so. I think it would be a dishonor to the complexity of who he is and the situation [he was in] to gloss over everything. But how we do it, I don’t know.’
Wade Robson recalled that Jackson tried to penetrate him when he was 14 in Leaving Neverland. ‘But it was really painful, too painful for me, so he stopped’
The show seems to make only two passing references to Jackson’s history of abuse, including a manager asking him, ‘Who the hell is this family he wants to bring on tour?’ Above, Myles Frost as Michael Jackson
Asked if he believed the allegations, director Wheeldon said: ‘The recent documentary is very believable, but our position in making this show is that we’re trying to make a show that’s balanced. So I don’t know that I have a definitive answer for you.’
The pair told the newspaper that the singer’s estate did no interfere in the writing process or prevent them from speaking about certain issues.
The estate sued HBO for $100 million alleging that the documentary violated a 27-year-old non-disparagement clause from a 1992 concert film from the Dangerous tour – the same tour depicted in the new musical, according to NBC News.
Jackson met Safechuck, above, while working on a Pepsi commercial in 1986
In December 2020, an appeals court sided with the Jackson estate and ruled that the dispute would have to be taken to private arbitration based on the contract.
Recent reviews for MJ: The Musical seem to indicate the show almost completely avoids sexual abuse allegations against the singer.
A review published Friday in Showbiz 411 describes the show’s non-linear plot, which jumps around Jackson’s life but mostly focuses on the plot device that an MTV crew has been sent to document Jackson’s rehearsal for the 1992 Dangerous Tour.
‘MJ doesn’t go beyond these rehearsals,’ the website said, adding that the show is in ‘good shape’ ahead of its official February 1 opening but makes no mention of any sexual assault allegations.
A New York Times review published last month says: ‘How would the show grapple with allegations that the pop singer molested children?
‘The answer: It doesn’t.’
The show does portray Jackson’s abusive father Joe, who is shown hitting him, as well as the singer’s reliance on prescription painkillers, but it doesn’t appear to touch on the allegations facing the late King of Pop himself.
A review on the fan site MJ Vibe described the extent of the show’s mention of abuse.
‘The allegations and prescription drugs use were there, and within the context of the show, these were important and were neither dismissed nor dwelled upon. The allegations were addressed in a simple exasperated one line to Michael « …. And about this family you want to take on Tour… ».’
Jackson was indicted on 10 criminal counts, including child molestation, abduction, false imprisonment and extortion, but was eventually acquitted in 2005. Above, Jackson on trial in November 2002 an unrelated case regarding cancelled concert appearances
The New York Times says the line was delivered by one of Jackson’s managers and actually went: ‘Who the hell is this family he wants to bring on tour?’
Another scene that takes place at a news conference features a reporter asking, ‘What do you have to say about the recent allegations that you,’ before they are cut off.
In August 1993, police found no incriminating evidence in Jackson’s Neverland ranch or in his Los Angeles home after they investigated allegations that he molested four children, including a 13-year-old boy called Jordan Chandler, according to NPR.
The next month, Chandler’s family sued claiming that Jackson ‘repeatedly committed sexual battery’ against the boy. CourtTV later revealed that Jackson settled the suit for around $23 million, NPR reports.
In 1994, prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges against Jackson in a case involving three boys because the ‘primary alleged victim’ declined to testify.
Police arrested Jackson on child molestation charges on November 20, 2003. He surrendered his passport and posted $3 million bail.
Lynn Nottage, who whore the new Jackson musical, said the Jackson estate did not interfere with her creative process, though little of the singer’s sordid past is in the show
Though fans have come to his defense, questions about the singer’s past continue to plague his legacy
He was indicted on 10 criminal counts, including child molestation, abduction, false imprisonment and extortion, but was eventually acquitted in 2005. He died in 2009 at the age of 50.
His doctor Conrad Murray was later found guilty of manslaughter for prescribing Jackson the anesthetic propofol, NPR reports.
Jackson’s dedicated fanbase, amassed over the course of a decades-long career that spanned 10 solo studio albums, has been known to go to bat for the late singer, criticizing those who bring up allegations of sexual abuse against him.
‘I would ask that the fans be respectful to the process, and trust us as artists,’ Nottage, the writer of the show, told the Times back in 2019.
‘And I do in some ways feel up to the challenge of telling this story, as scary as it is, because of the great divide that exists. But, in this day and age, I feel like if we as artists run away from complexity, then who are we?’