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How MJ the Musical sanitised Michael Jackson’s story: ‘Can we really sit in a theatre and pretend?’

MJ the Musical has already made millions for Jackson’s estate. But as the Broadway hit opens in Australia and the estate prepares to face two of Jackson’s alleged victims in court, fans may ask: is buying a ticket OK?

When the Guardian reviewed MJ on Broadway, we described the musical, which is made in cooperation with the late singer’s estate and co-produced by its co-executors, as “a rollicking parade of hits, vocal high points, and a sanitized spin through Jackson’s life that sketches demons without filling them in”, and an exercise in “compartmentalization”. Set in 1992 during rehearsals for Jackson’s Dangerous tour, MJ sidesteps the lurid tabloid controversies – including allegations that he abused his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, speculation about his changing appearance and plastic surgery, and his death from a cocktail of prescription drugs in 2009. However some have found the show’s failure to even acknowledge this significant part of the star’s story discomforting, particularly in the wake of Leaving Neverland, in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck aired fresh allegations that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children.

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