Thriller Live: The Musical

Every year, the Society of London Theatre has a promotion offering cut-price theatre tickets for many of the West End shows. Me and about 8 others took this opportunity to see Thriller, the musical based on Michael Jackson and his songs. It's only just opened in London after having a successful run in Manchester and I mean, really, with Michael Jackson's songs, this was going to be some kind of good.

It was a bit difficult to find some background about the show e.g. storyline, detailed reviews etc. I concluded that the show would be a biographical re-enactment of MJ's life interspersed with songs. I was a bit wrong there.

There was no script, no conventional storyline, just people on stage singing MJ's songs wearing various outfits reflective of the era or music video. There was a voiceover narration which didn't narrate all that often and was only used to introduce significant parts of MJ's music career. That's not to say the 'musical' was bad but it more or less makes it an arena spectacular.......in a theatre. Once I realised that this was not going to be MJ's stage version of Tina Turner's 'What's Love to Do with It' (with MJ's Joe Jackson to Tina's Ike Turner), then I settled back in my seat. Not what I expected, but oh well, let's enjoy the show.

The child performing MJ's Jackson 5 songs was indeed very good who put most of the adult 'Michaels' to shame.

He misses one of the notes near the end (I think his first encounter with puberty has been immortalised on TV!) but it's a decent performance.

The role of adult Michael was not burdened on just one person; there were about four to five Michaels. Sometimes they sang solo, sometimes they performed together and other times there was a specific Michael who just danced. He was a professional impersonator and his Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal scenes were particularly noteworthy. Those epileptic-fit dance moves sure do look easy, but I appreciate they're not. Here's a bootleg clip.

They even built a contraption for the bit where they bend forward (fast forward to 4.56). Of course nothing.. NOTHING... can compare the Real Deal MJ in his heyday but you gotta give this guy kudos.

Now..... I'm gonna have a dig into some of the other Michaels. Every so often during the show Kahoons and I would shoot each other 'OMFG, he's so crap' looks. These songs are difficult to sing but you would think that the producers would at least do the song justice by casting better vocalists!

I assigned the Michaels nicknames to make them more easily identifiable. There was the Usher-lookalike who I thought was just the worst. He was having a really off-night.... either that or he was just simply bad. Not 'MJ Bad', just 'bad' bad. I'm no music student, but he missed soooo many crucial notes, or as Paula Abdul would put it - he was pitchy.

Then there was the Pudgy Brian McKnight. He was mediocre at most. He'd get applause for a good karaoke performance but it was not quite arena-worthy. Also, singing loud does not equate to singing well.

MJ-dance-impersonator - I don't think he sang. Or at least, I don't recall him singing.

Then there was the Token White Guy. I'd place him level with Pudgy Brian McKnight. His performance of 'Bad' made me cringe and he was trying a bit hard. Vocals were okay but wavered on so-so to not-so-good at times. I have a feeling he can do better judging by the other videos I've seen of him on youtube. His acoustic version of Bleeding Love is quite peaceful. Maybe he's just not suited to singing MJ songs.

The best Michael by a longshot was Female Michael. Yes a woman singing MJ's songs. Makes more sense than you think. From my dress circle seats, she also vaguely looked like Janet Jackson. She just put the other Michaels to shame. Her vocals were effortless - she had the MJ signature 'wooooh!' and vocal hiccups down pat. I particularly looked forward to her performances as she was the only adult MJ who would nail each song with flair. She looked like she was enjoying it too! *thumbs up* I am somewhat biased here, but I really enjoyed her delivery of 'The Way You Make Me Feel'. They had slowed the beginning of the song with an acapella section before pumping into version we all know and she was just so damn good. I couldn't find any bootleg recordings of her performances, but I found out her name is Denise Pearson and she was part of a band. That kinda explains it.

The sound is not so great on this video so her vocal qualities might not come through.

I couldn't find any recordings of Denise singing 'The Way You Make Me Feel' but I did find this video of Haley Evettes who I assume is her understudy. Maybe I have high standards but I just think this is just plain bad and somewhat representative of the general vocal quality of the show. Yes, that is why Mr. Wong and I often shuddered.

Uggggh!!! So painful!

Despite all my criticisms and the fact that it wasn't what I expected, I actually did enjoy the show and wouldn't mind watching it again! I think is partly due to the fact that MJ songs are so easily appreciated and you would have to severely butcher them to really ruin the show. Being a hardcore fan can have it's drawbacks. I think the show will split opinions and you'll either overlook it's flaws and enjoy it immensely or you'll think it's a travesty.

This was a preview performance and hopefully by the next time I watch it, the performances will be more polished. I just feel that the show has a lot of potential to be better than what it was. It should be on par with other jukebox musicals such as the super-slick Jersey Boys, though obviously there is much more choreography involved in Thriller. I do retract my comment of expecting a storyline. If there was a storyline, there would be no time for singing all the songs and musical would go for at least three hours!

My other highlights of the show was Billie Jean (cos it's an 80s club classic) and Thriller. Nothing beats zombie dancing!