San Francisco’s Michael Jackson musical is dangerous

SFGATE culture editor Dan Gentile couldn’t look past the darkness at the heart of ‘MJ’

Kevin Mazur / WireImage

Halfway through the Michael Jackson musical at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, red lights flash and the darkened stage erupts into a devilish carnival scene — zombie dancers rise from the floor, the actor who plays Jackson’s father hovers over him like a vampire, and he belts out the iconic lyrics to “Thriller.”

It’s an awesome moment: The live band is rock solid, Roman Banks plays a convincing Michael, and the stage design is Tony-worthy — which was one of 10 nominations the musical received in 2022. The whole thing is a little cheesy and on the nose, but it is a Broadway musical after all. And if you’re a Michael Jackson fan, the musical is two and a half hours of nostalgia that serves as a reminder of why he was crowned the King of Pop.

But the problem with kings is that they are rarely held accountable. If you have any knowledge of Jackson’s history of credibly accused pedophilia, songs like “Pretty Young Thing” — which wasn’t played in the musical — take on a new meaning, and beg the question as to whether “MJ: The Musical” would dare to acknowledge the man in the mirror.

‘Bad’

The plot of “MJ” centers around Jackson rehearsing for his “Dangerous World Tour” in early 1992. His previous album, “Bad,” was a smash hit, resulting in five No. 1 singles. Sony renewed his contract for a whopping $65 million (about $150 million today) and he released “Dangerous,” ditching Quincy Jones’ funk production for the new jack swing sound of Terry Riley.

The following world tour, which Jackson hoped would raise $100 million for his Heal the World charity, was wildly expensive to produce — the costumes alone cost $2 million. But Jackson, deep in an addiction to painkillers, won’t take no for an answer and continues adding expensive stunts, including a Taylor Swift-esque toaster pop entrance. He eventually mortgages his Neverland Ranch to pay for the costs.

The rehearsal serves as a framing device to tell the story of Jackson’s career, with flashbacks to career highlights, like a performance with the Jackson 5 at the Apollo Theater’s amateur night and the recording of “Thriller” (complete with a period-appropriate Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synth crafted in San Francisco). Jackson’s father, who served as his manager throughout his career, looms heavily over all of these scenes, abusing his son physically and emotionally, and instilling a perfectionism that Jackson emulates while preparing for the “Dangerous” tour.

While at the rehearsal, Jackson allows an MTV film crew in to document the experience. After overhearing whispers about the painkillers, an intrepid journalist corners Jackson at one point and dares to ask him to respond to the “recent allegations” against him. Did he get plastic surgery? And does he really sleep in an oxygen chamber? The pop star laughs off these questions, and the journalist doesn’t ask about the persistent rumors of child sex abuse. Michael Jackson’s estate, which was involved in the making of the musical, hopes the audience members won’t ask those questions either.

The ‘recent allegations’

Up to this point in the musical, I wasn’t sure the world really needed another “art versus artist” essay. I didn’t expect much from a production made in coordination with Jackson’s estate, but the way the musical glossed so casually over the defining scandal of Jackson’s career didn’t sit right with me. I went home and rewatched some of the damning 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland” and still had reservations about writing anything. But the fact that in August 2023, two of Jackson’s accusers began relitigating their lawsuits put this revisionist history in a new, dangerous light.

The only reference to allegations that he had sexual relationships with underage boys comes in one of the many moments where members of the media are cast as the villains, with an offhand remark questioning why he’s bringing a random family member along with him on the tour. It felt like the equivalent of making a biopic centered around Jeffrey Epstein’s success as a financial consultant.

The fact that in the ’90s, we as a society collectively accepted that Jackson, in his late 20s, was having children spend the night with him in his bed because he didn’t get to have sleepovers as a kid is both a testament to the power of Jackson’s music and a damning indictment of our culture.

In “Leaving Neverland,” Wade Robson and James Safechuck recount their years of abuse in horrifically vivid detail, describing unthinkable sex acts and the lengths Jackson and his enablers went to conceal them. The film won an Emmy and a Television Critics Association Award and other accolades, but shortly after, a slew of counterdocumentaries came forth questioning Safechuck and Robson’s claims. In what may have marked the beginning of his heel turn, Dave Chappelle came to Jackson’s defense in a Netflix special.

Granted, Jackson was acquitted in several of the lawsuits against him. But I’m not quite sure what these defenders have to say about the $20 million civil settlement in 1994 regarding a separate child molestation lawsuit.

Facing Michael Jackson’s legacy

I was introduced to Michael Jackson through a “Dangerous” CD, which my parents bought for me at age 9. Safechuck was just a year older when he met Jackson on the set of a Pepsi commercial, a meeting that, according to damning interviews in “Leaving Neverland,” led to years of sexual abuse. Wade Robson, the other child featured in the documentary, was just 7 years old when, according to the documentary, Jackson began performing oral sex on him.

For years, I accepted the innocent sleepover theory too, or at least turned the other way. One of the first things I did when I started DJing two decades ago was purchase an eBay lot of every Michael Jackson LP. I played those albums to death — my copy of “Thriller” actually had a burn mark on one side from a college party where someone set off a bottle rocket and the firework scorched across the vinyl. I collected remix singles, played them at countless club nights. At weddings, I leaned on “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” when the dance floor started to thin.

But after I saw the documentary, I took those records out of rotation, and it seems like most other people did, too. Now Michael Jackson is rarely requested at weddings; more often than not, he’s on the “don’t play list.”

There were moments in “MJ” when I lost myself in the music — it’s impossible not to. Hearing Jackson 5 songs like “The Love You Save” in particular brought back feelings of intense nostalgia. Who wouldn’t smile as Jackson, wearing one sparkling glove, defies all the laws of friction and moonwalks across the stage? And it’s hard not to feel pity for young Michael for the abuse he faced himself.

When the lights flashed red and zombies rose from the floor doing the iconic “Thriller” dance, I gasped audibly at the spectacle of it all. “No mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller,” Jackson sang. Based on the standing ovation from the audience, this seemed true — that Jackson’s musical legacy has overshadowed his life’s darker aspects. It’s a choice everyone has to make for themselves, but for me, the “Billie Jean” bass line can’t excuse the singer’s sins.