"MJ the Musical" presented by Broadway San Diego

Roman Banks stars as Michael Jackson in "MJ the Musical."                             Photo by Matthew Murphy

           Guess who was sitting in the row in front of me at Wednesday night’s performance of “MJ the Musical”?
            Who else? Michael Jackson, complete with military jacket and sequined glove.
            All right. It wasn’t Michael Jackson. He died 15 years ago. This fan was done up to look as much like the King of Pop as possible, right down to each lock of hair. I assume he wasn’t the only would-be lookalike in the Civic Theatre either. “MJ” is a show for MJ fans, and 15 years after his passing, Jackson boasts them by the zillions.
            This uber-energetic, technically dazzling jukebox musical is touring after opening on Broadway just two years ago. (Its intended opening in 2020 was put off by the pandemic.) It’s packed with well-known songs, from the fledgling Jackson 5 days on through the 1992-‘93 “Dangerous” tour, preparation for which constitutes the plot line of the show’s book by the esteemed playwright Lynn Nottage (“Intimate Apparel,” “Ruined”). Some are, disappointingly, only performed in part, but then with so many in the score complete renditions would require a four-hour audience sit or longer. As it is, “MJ” runs more than two and a half hours.
            Nottage did not pen a warts-and-all depiction of Michael Jackson, and for a Broadway show catering to America at large, no one could have expected her to. There are references to Jackson’s drug dependency and skin pallor shoehorned into the “MJ” story via the pretext of an MTV reporter (Mary Kate Moore) behind the scenes to get the “one big interview” with the global icon as he prepares to launch the Dangerous World Tour.
            There is no treading the controversial ground of Jackson’s later life, the stuff of the explosive documentary “Leaving Neverland.” No, “MJ” is 95 percent a celebration of the charisma and musical genius of Jackson.
            This production presented here by Broadway San Diego features a young superstar of its own – 25-year-old Roman Banks. Far more than the fan sitting in front of me in the theater, Banks becomes Michael Jackson as much as anyone could be, from the look to the super-soft speaking voice to the signature dance moves. The vocals are close enough.
            Brandon Lee Harris shines as the “Thriller”-era Michael. Two young actors alternate as the boy whose dominating father (Devin Bowles) pushed him to the point of pain, literally.
            Aside from Banks’, however, the performances are secondary to the breathless choreography by Christopher Wheeldon and the show’s ensemble of young dancers, in toto worthy of a star who moved on stage as distinctively as anyone who’s ever done so in pop.
            The “Thriller” number in Act 2 is, frankly, thrilling, as are many of the production sequences after intermission. The first act is consumed heavily by the tale of Jackson’s emergence, with the “Soul Train” re-creation being the most memorable.
            Banks is given a fair amount of time alone onstage for quieter moments and the conveying of introspection. Nottage hints here at the drive for perfection, the love of music and possibly the torments within the inner man.
            But “MJ” does not echo as a tragi-musical. The furthest it reaches is a what-price-success? story set to unforgettable songs that became and still are parts of so many lives: “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “Bad,” “Human Nature,” et al.
            “MJ” is one of those shows that if you’d paid steeply for tickets to see it on Broadway, you would have walked out afterward telling yourself it was worth the dough. As noted earlier, those who loved Michael Jackson will be likely to love “MJ the Musical.” His spirit inhabits the best of this stage musical. The controversies around him have been chronicled elsewhere. That too is certainly the way his fans want it.
            “MJ the Musical” runs through March 10 at the Civic Theatre, downtown.