Prince Edward Theatre

The last Michael Jackson musical to grace the West End was ‘Thriller – Live’, a revue show that was almost endearingly dumb, consisting as it did of the King of Pop’s greatest hits interspersed with a bunch of ripped men bellowing about his sales figures.  ‘MJ the Musical’ is the real deal, however, an estate-endorsed jukebox show that’s gone down a storm on Broadway. Significantly, it has a book by Lynn Nottage, one of the great American playwrights. Her text addresses aspects of Jackson’s life with a frankness that’s refreshing, if selective. It’s set in 1992, during rehearsals for the ‘Dangerous’ world tour and handily a year before child sex abuse allegations were first levelled against Jackson. ‘MJ’ thus avoids any allusion to said controversy. At the same time, it doesn’t do that thing where it pretends there was nothing unusual about him: there are allusions to everything from Bubbles the chimp to Jackson’s changing skin colour.  For the West End debut of Christopher Wheeldon’s production, ‘present day’ Michael is played by the jaw-droppingly talented original Broadway star Myles Frost. To say he’s a triple threat would be an understatement: in the acting department he’s maybe more of a vague menace, but as a dancer and singer he is extraordinary. Yes sir, he can moonwalk, and slip into all of Jackson’s propulsive dance routines effortlessly. His voice isn’t quite as piercing as Jackson’s, but it’s a fair approximation, and frankly remarkable given what he’s doing...

There are only so many theatres in London big enough to stage a proper full on Broadway musical spectacular, and with MJ the Musical off, the door is open for Beetlejuice the Musical to enter. The name ought to make it pretty clear what we’re talking about here: Beetlejuice is of course Tim Burton’s cult classic 1988 film about a young couple with a very nice house who die in a car crash and are horrifed to observe – from a very surreal, bureacracy-bound afterlife – that some ghastly new people have moved into their old gaff. So they unwisely turn to the services of the eponymous ‘bio-exorcist’ to get rid of them; unfortunately Beetlejuice (real name Betelgeuse) is a total whackjob. Written by Scott Brown and Anthony King with music and lyrics by Australian singer-songwriter Eddie Perfect, Beetlejuice the Musical is a massive trippy goth spectacle that’s directed by Alex Timbers, best known to London audiences for his heroically OTT smash Moulin Rogue! The Musical – you can expect similar amounts of excess here. There’s no word on casting though it is notable that Beetlejuice is making a limited return to Broadway immediately before its UK run – it’s certainly not impossible that we might end up with a seasoned American-led cast. It’s being billed as a limited run, although as it’s ‘limited’ to 11 months in a massive theatre you probably don’t need to worry too much.