Michael Jackson is everywhere right now, in movies, musicals and on TikTok, and it’s hard to believe seventeen years have passed since his death. MJ The Musical arrives at Crown Theatre as exactly what it sets out to be: a joyful, spectacular celebration of one of pop’s most extraordinary careers. The various controversies of Jackson’s life are acknowledged briefly and then set aside. This show’s purpose is the music, and on that front it delivers in abundance.
The story plants itself firmly in the middle of the Jackson legend: the high-stakes preparation for the 1992 Dangerous World Tour. The production amps up the drama, depicting Michael risking everything including Neverland itself to mount the show he envisioned, and it works as a theatrical device even if history tells a slightly different story.
The narrative moves through flashbacks, tracing the through-line between the uncompromising father who drove the Jackson Five and the equally uncompromising adult Michael who would mortgage his world for his art. The structural device works well, giving the show genuine emotional grounding without slowing the momentum. The controversial Don King reunion tour gets a brief mention, a nod to the murkier corners of the Jackson story, but the production is ultimately more interested in celebration than examination. What you get instead is the music, and plenty of it.
Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal land with exactly the weight you’d expect, the Jackson Five numbers give the flashback sequences genuine warmth and a touch of bittersweet nostalgia, and Thriller earns its place among the highlights without swallowing the show whole. There is more besides, spanning a career’s worth of era-defining moments that had the Crown Theatre crowd singing along from the opening number. The setlist alone is worth the ticket price.
The lighting throughout is spectacular, dynamic and precise, building toward a closing sequence that delivers a proper visual spectacle fully worthy of the Dangerous era itself. Ilario Grant carries the lead with quiet authority, bringing a softness to Michael that never tips into imitation. Derrick Davis does strong double duty as both the domineering Joseph Jackson in the flashback sequences and the production manager in the present-day rehearsal scenes, a structural parallel that gives the show much of its emotional spine and one of its most interesting ideas. The ensemble brings full commitment to every number, and it shows.
The Crown Theatre crowd needed little encouragement. There was hollering at key moments, warm applause that lingered after each number, and a room full of people visibly reconnecting with music that shaped them. The audience skewed toward those who lived through the Jackson era firsthand, and the nostalgia was palpable and entirely earned. By the final bow, a standing ovation rose naturally, and then the cast returned for one more number, just when you thought it was done.
For the dedicated MJ fan, this is an essential night out. For everyone else, it is an enormously entertaining show that plays the favourites, fills the room with sound and light, and sends you out smiling. Don’t go looking for deep philosophy. Just go.
To book tickets to MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical, please visit https://mjthemusical.com.au/tickets/perth/.
Photographer: Daniel Boud
