Review: ‘MJ’ Celebrates Michael Jackson, Ignores Sins

‘We love you Michael!” people were calling out from the audience while having a deliriously good time at MJ, the musical that would have us believe that the greatest controversies surrounding Michael Jackson concerned whether he slept in an oxygen tent or bought the remains of the Elephant Man.

Jackson died so abruptly and so young that his fans didn’t have the time to prepare for his passing, and the musical provides a kind of joyous catharsis. In the performance I saw, understudy Aramie Payton, (substituting for headliner Myles Frost), who played Michael as he rehearses for his 1992 Dangerous Tour, and Tavon Olds-Sample, who played the teen and young-adult Michaels, did an uncanny job recreating Jackson’s marvelous dance moves and his explosive energy. MJ thus honors what Jackson did onstage and in the studio, even as it ignores what he did to little boys.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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‘We love you Michael!” people were calling out from the audience while having a deliriously good time at MJ, the musical that would have us believe that the greatest controversies surrounding Michael Jackson concerned whether he slept in an oxygen tent or bought the remains of the Elephant Man.

Jackson died so abruptly and so young that his fans didn’t have the time to prepare for his passing, and the musical provides a kind of joyous catharsis. In the performance I saw, understudy Aramie Payton, (substituting for headliner Myles Frost), who played Michael as he rehearses for his 1992 Dangerous Tour, and Tavon Olds-Sample, who played the teen and young-adult Michaels, did an uncanny job recreating Jackson’s marvelous dance moves and his explosive energy. MJ thus honors what Jackson did onstage and in the studio, even as it ignores what he did to little boys.