Jesse
Green

February 1, 2022

“There are a lot of strange stories making the rounds,” says a documentary filmmaker interviewing Michael Jackson.

Understate much?

Michael Jackson was such a magnet for strange stories that they nearly obliterated his gift. Yet in defensively brushing off the ones that don’t matter while pointedly ignoring the one that does, the new musical “MJ,” which opened on Tuesday at the Neil Simon Theater, may be the strangest Michael Jackson story yet.

Robert
Hofler

February 1, 2022

“MJ” is a jukebox musical that is nothing but the late King of Pop’s greatest hits. Would Jackson himself approve of such a sentimental journey? More to the point is that his estate has approved it. And that is only one of the minor offenses on display in “MJ,” which opened Tuesday at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre.

Adam
Feldman

February 1, 2022

Toward the end of MJ, If you look closely, there are signs of what might be interpreted as foreshadows of the times to come. “I can give people what they want, but when I step off stage, it, um, gets complicated,” Michael admits. “And do you think people really wanna see my life? There’s been some dark struggles…Things I can’t…” There he drifts off, to finish singing “Human Nature” and move on to “Bad.” A climactic dark-carnival staging of “Thriller” follows, which is ostensibly about Jackson’s fear of his controlling father but also involves demon versions of himself. “Listen to my music,” says Michael to his interviewer. “It answers any questions you might have.” Does it? I left the theater entertained, but not convinced I had really seen the man in the smoke and mirrors.

Naveen
Kumar

February 1, 2022

In answer to the question of whether it’s possible to separate the art from the artist, “MJ” performs a slick, crotch-grabbing sidestep. Packed with nearly 40 hits from Michael Jackson’s irresistible catalogue, the Broadway production from director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is not so much a biomusical as a high-shine and surface-skimming rehabilitation tour for its late subject, flattening rather than reckoning with his complex legacy.

Charles
Isherwood

February 1, 2022

And yet — you knew that was coming, didn’t you? — for all its surface flash and stylish presentation, “MJ” comes across, like most jukebox/bio-musical hybrids, as superficial fan-bait: a glossy but unrevelatory moonwalk through the ups and downs (mostly the ups) of Jackson’s career.

Juan Michael
Porter II

February 1, 2022

Songs from his extensive catalog appear throughout the show haphazardly. When they take place during rehearsal scenes, such as when Michael is tinkering with a new idea, they leave the audience buzzing with nostalgia and wonder. But when they are forced into awkward dramatic moments that they were never meant to fulfill―for instance, Michael sitting off in the corner singing snippets of a sad song because he is a perpetually morose sap―the effect left me hyperventilating with queasiness.

Associated Press

Mark
Kennedy

February 1, 2022

The new, splashy Broadway musical about Michael Jackson begins with the King of Pop plotting an ambitious tour to reclaim his throne. He’s facing financial ruin, swirling rumors and an addiction to pain pills. You’d think it was 2009, just weeks before his death. That’s the logical place to start. But logic has little to do with “MJ.”

Peter
Marks

February 1, 2022

Filled with exhilarating versions of the songs Jackson made into music videos and took on world tours, “MJ” is a dance musical of the first rank. If you look back at the choreography in those videos of the late 1980s and early 1990s — “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “Smooth Criminal” and, of course, “Thriller” — you’ll see that by comparison Wheeldon and the exquisite dancers of “MJ” have boosted the muscularity and grace of the pop star’s signature movements. It’s now a veritable Corps de Moonwalking.

Rolling Stone

David
Browne

February 1, 2022

MJ ends without any updates on Jackson’s life after 1992, which is likely to gratify some and infuriate others. As part of his posthumous rehabilitation effort, MJ wants you to remember all the best things about him and not dwell on what came next. You’d almost think Jackson died right after Dangerous and not 17 years later. And maybe in that way, this equally exhilarating and confounding show really does have it right: Whether you believe the allegations made against him or not, there’s no question that a part of Jackson left the building on those world stages nearly 30 years ago.

Greg
Evans

February 1, 2022

If MJ can’t contain the shock of the new that turned his 1983 television performance into an era-defining moment, it is in no short supply of its own thrills, not least the reminder, after all these years of scandal and accusations, that we once observed, in real time, the blossoming of undeniable talent into unavoidable genius. That’s a transition, not since equaled, that director-choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, book write Lynn Nottage and an impeccable cast led by the star-is-born Myles Frost, bring to pulse-quickening life on the stage.

Lovia
Gyarkye

February 1, 2022

MJ, a remarkable Broadway musical written by Lynn Nottage and directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, deftly probes this weighty topic. The show was produced by arrangement with the musician’s estate, and uses Jackson’s archives and place within the public’s imagination to conduct a Freudian analysis of the artist’s life. How do you tell a story of a person who dissolved into the roles he created for himself and the roles the public created for him? Well, it depends on where and when you start.

Ny Daily News

Chris
Jones

February 1, 2022

Zachary
Stewart

February 1, 2022

Of course, there will always be people who find nothing enjoyable about Michael Jackson. They don’t think such a problematic artist deserves a platform, and they will bristle at Nottage’s propagandistic portrayal of Jackson as a kind of pop music E.T. — simultaneously wonderous and too fragile for our fallen world. MJ is not for them. Rather, it is for the millions of Michael Jackson fans whose fealty to the King of Pop remains unbroken, and who are eager to have a good time in a Broadway theater with songs they already know and love. They won’t be disappointed by MJ. I suspect it’s going to be a big fat hit.

Johnny
Oleksinski

February 1, 2022

The troubles over at “MJ: The Musical,” the new show about Michael Jackson that opened Tuesday night on Broadway, are much bigger than the controversy surrounding its subject — although the two are closely connected. While the lifeless script is written by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage of “Ruined,” the pat dialogue feels as if it was co-authored by a lawyer for the Jackson estate — one of the producers — with Wite-Out and a Sharpie.

Helen
Shaw

February 1, 2022

Is it possible to make a show about a man whose memory dwells under deep shadow? Of course it is. But you do then have to make a good show. MJ is a Frankenstein’s monster constantly tugging apologetically at its forelock, making a pretense of telling Michael’s story while loudly and pointedly bracketing which parts of the story are available for sale.

Juan A.
Ramirez

February 1, 2022

The sharp, talented cast sold me on music Jackson himself often couldn’t, and the story not only addresses the allegations, however sideways, but raises a defiant middle finger to anyone who dares bring up concerns about the late performer’s conduct when discussing his legacy. Of course, as the words “child sexual assault” would make for kind of a musical theatre bummer, the “allegations” leveled against him only amount to whether he sleeps in an oxygen chamber or got a nose job.