‘MJ: The Musical’ Brings Michael Jackson’s Story To Broadway

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — “MJ: The Musical” opens on Broadway Tuesday night, two years after it was supposed to premiere.

As CBS2’s Lisa Rozner reports, despite Omicron hitting Broadway hard, the show has been powering through previews since December.

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Members of the late Michael Jackson’s family are expected to arrive to see the show, which focuses on the singer’s creative process.

Myles Frost is making his Broadway debut as the star of “MJ: The Musical.”

“I want it to be the MJ show that y’all were expecting it to be and even beyond that,” he said.

It’s written by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Jackson’s estate is one of the lead producers, and the premise is set in 1992 right before his “Dangerous Tour,” which was one year before the first public allegation of abuse against the singer.

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“What we endeavor to do is a mixtape of Michael Jackson’s life, is to use the frame of making the ‘Dangerous Tour’ over the course of two days and filter it through a documentary team from MTV, who are there to capture what it is to be Michael Jackson,” Nottage said.

It showcases his singing and dancing to dozens of MJ songs in the nearly 1,500-seat theater.

Nottage has said she wants it to be a musical everyone can come to, regardless of how they feel about the late pop star.

And for the first time in Playbill’s 138-year history, four commemorative Playbill covers honor Black History Month. They were created by illustrator Nate Giorgio, a friend of Jackson’s who created a series of paintings for him in the ’80s.

“For the first time, people will be sitting in a Broadway theater, looking to their left and looking to their right and wondering what Playbill did the person next to them get,” Playbill Vice President Alex Birsh said.

The hope is this show helps give Broadway the boost it needs.

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The latest numbers from the Broadway Keague show attendance at shows for the week ending Jan. 23 at 75%, but most shows need much higher attendance to be successful.