Broadway’s Michael Jackson Musical Finds Its King Of Pop: ‘Ain’t Too Proud’s Ephraim Sykes To Moonwalk



Broadway has found its Michael Jackson: Tony-nominated Ain’t Too Proud star Ephraim Sykes will take the title role in the upcoming MJ The Musical, producers announced today.

The musical, loaded with classic hits by the later King of Pop, will begin preview performances on Monday, July 6, 2020, at the Neil Simon Theatre, with an opening night set for Thursday, August 13.

The casting announcement was made by producers Lia Vollack and The Michael Jackson Estate. Producers have released a sneak peek teaser video – watch it below.

Sykes is currently on Broadway in another Motown-inspired musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, playing the group’s David Ruffin. He was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award yesterday for the show’s cast album, along with the rest of the original cast.

“Ephraim Sykes is a bonafide triple threat,” said Wheeldon in a statement, “and dynamic rising star on Broadway. I am honored to be working with him on this exciting new production.”

Sykes’ other credits include NBC’s Hairspray Live!, Smash, Vinyl, among others. Broadway credits include Hamilton, Memphis, Motown and Newsies.

MJ will feature a book by Lynn Nottage, with Christopher Wheeldon on board to direct and choreograph. Initially titled Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, the musical had been set to debut in a pre-Broadway Chicago run, but the try-out was canceled with producers citing delays due to a then-recent Actors Equity strike. Equity challenged the reasoning. The cancelation roughly coincided with the launch on HBO of the damning Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland.

The production also posted a short teaser video for the musical. Watch it below.

Audition for MJ The Musical

MJ the musical has announced a multi-city search for actors of all ages, including young performers to play Michael Jackson at age 10. These auditions come on the heels of the recently announced star casting of Tony Award nominee Ephraim Sykes as Michael Jackson. Actors are being sought for Broadway stage roles as well as to understudy, and must possess the singing and dancing chops for the role of Michael Jackson at various stages of his life in the upcoming Broadway production.

Auditions will take place across the country throughout January in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, and Los Angeles. Complete details on each of these planned open calls is listed below. Video submissions will also be accepted.

Those interested in auditioning can find more information at MJ The Musical

Audition Dates:

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Saturday, January 11th, 2020
Open Call from 12-3pm
Hyatt Place Washington DC
1522 K Street NW
Washington, D.C 20005

CHICAGO, IL
Saturday, January 11th, 2020
Open Call from 1 – 3:30 pm
Gus Giordano Dance School
5230 N Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640

DETROIT, MI
Sunday, January 12th, 2020
Open Call from 10am – 12:30pm
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Detroit Downtown – Fort Shelby
525 W Lafayette Boulevard
Detroit, MI USA 48226

PHILADELPHIA, PA
Sunday, January 12th, 2020
Open Call from 12pm – 3pm
Walnut Street Theatre
825 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

ATLANTA, GA
Saturday, January 25th, 2020
Open Call from 12-3pm
Sheraton Atlanta Hotel
165 Courtland Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303

NEW YORK CITY, NY
Saturday, January 25th, 2020
Open Call from 10am – 1pm
Telsey + Company
1501 Broadway, Suite #510
NYC, NY 10036
*Must bring ID to enter the building

LOS ANGELES, CA
Saturday, February 1st, 2020
Open Call from 9am – 1pm
Screenland Studios
10501 Burbank Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA 9160
Quelle:mjvibe

MJ The Musical announces more Casting & Ticket sales planning.

More casting is here for the upcoming Michael Jackson musical “MJ”. The production will begin previews on July 6 and open on August 13 at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre.

New cast members include Quentin Earl Darrington, Whitney Bashor, Gabriel Ruiz, Antoine L. Smith, Joey Sorge, Darius Barnes, Raymond Baynard, Coral Dolphin, John Edwards, Ayana George, Kali May Grinder, Apollo Levine, Ryan VanDenBoom, Lamont Walker II, Naomi C. Walley and Zelig Williams.

They join the previously announced Ephraim Sykes as Michael Jackson. Additional casting is still to come!

MJ will feature a book by two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage and a score made up of Jackson’s song catalogue. Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph. Who both have publicly insinuate they believed Robson and Safechuck’s stories.

The Estate has also sent an email to fans regarding the ticket sales planning. Advanced tickets will go on sale on January 14 for the people who have registered to the website before general ticket sales on January 15. But a special pre-sale on the evening of January 13 will take place just for the fans (what a threat! really!) through a special link which will be shared by the Estate.
https://mjthemusical.com/
Quelle:mjvibe

First Look: Set Design Unveiled for Michael Jackson Broadway Musical 'MJ' (Exclusive)



Scenic design sketch by Derek McLane for 'MJ'

The complete creative team also has been announced for the upcoming bio-musical, which begins previews July 6 at the Neil Simon Theatre ahead of an Aug. 13 opening.

A densely industrial city block full of fire escapes and neons, a place that looks suspended in the imagination between Times Square and Tokyo, will form one of the principal settings for MJ, the upcoming Broadway musical inspired by the life and artistry of Michael Jackson. The Hollywood Reporter was given an exclusive first look at the work of scenic designer Derek McLane.

"The majority of the story is set inside a spacious, industrial dance rehearsal studio, but throughout the musical we find ourselves repeatedly transported into Michael's mind — his memories and dreams," said McLane in a statement. "The alternating between dream sequences and reality gives us the chance to repeatedly surprise the audience."

Lia Vollack Productions and The Michael Jackson Estate today also confirmed the full creative team for the show, which will star previously announced lead Ephraim Sykes in the title role.

In addition to McLane, a Tony Award winner for 33 Variations and a two-time Emmy winner for the 2014 Oscars telecast and 2017's Hairspray Live!, the team includes multiple award winners Natasha Katz (lighting), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Gareth Owen (sound), Peter Nigrini (projections) and Charles LaPointe (hair and wigs).

David Holcenberg will serve as music supervisor, also sharing orchestration and arrangement duties with recent Tony winner Jason Michael Webb, who will be the production's music director.

The show's book is by Lynn Nottage, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her plays Ruined and Sweat, while direction and choreography are by Christopher Wheeldon, who made a successful transition from the ballet world into musical theater in 2015 with An American in Paris, winning a Tony for his exhilarating dance storytelling.

Few details are known about the show at this point, other than the narrative frame being pegged to the intensive rehearsal period for Jackson's 1992 Dangerous tour, widely considered the height of his reign as the King of Pop. It remains unclear to what extent, if any, the musical will address the controversies surrounding child sexual abuse allegations that clouded the final decades of Jackson's life and have continued since his death in 2009.

"What I would say about the show is that Lynn Nottage and Christopher Wheeldon are really unique and brilliant theater artists and I think that what we have done for as long as there has been theater is told stories about all kinds of provocative individuals," lead producer Vollack told THR in an interview late last year. "Michael Jackson was a figure in our history who has been dead for 10 years, who had a massive impact on music and dance, on how we view celebrity and race."

Previews for MJ are scheduled to begin July 6 at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre, ahead of an Aug. 13 official opening.

Alongside Sykes, coming off his Tony-nominated turn in Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, the MJ cast will include Quentin Earl Darrington, Whitney Bashor, Gabriel Ruiz, Antoine L. Smith, Joey Sorge, Darius Barnes, Raymond Baynard, Coral Dolphin, John Edwards, Ayana George, Kali May Grinder, Apollo Levine, Ryan VanDenBoom, Lamont Walker II, Naomi C. Walley and Zelig Williams.
Quelle:hollywoodreporter

MJ The Musical postponed to March 8, 2021



Following the announcement this morning that all Broadway Shows will be postponed until September, The MJ Musical just announced that they will postponed the show until March 8, 2021.

Due to the Broadway shutdown, MJ will now arrive on Broadway beginning March 8, 2021. For information about refunds for canceled performances, please contact your point of purchase. Tickets for our new dates are available now:
www.mjthemusical.com/tickets
Quelle:mjvibe

Michael Jackson Musical ‘MJ’ Hires New Producer



MJ The Musical has been delayed due to COVID while they were supposed to start last July and weirdly they only hired a new producer Travis LeMont Ballenger to help on the project.

While you would think that sort of hiring would have been done like a year ago, the production is still due to open its doors on April 15 with previews on March 8, 2021.

Those sort of moves make fans doubting of the stability of the project, especially after the fiasco of Lynn Nottage; who wrote the book for the play; and declared she believed the new accusations in the so called documentary “Leaving Neverland”.

With COVID-19 shaking the world still, there is also doubt on the re-opening of theaters around the world which can still delay opening night for the 3rd time!

Quelle: Deadline /mjvibe

Broadway’s Back Pt. 3: Pandemic Delay May Have Been Best Thing After All for “MJ: Michael Jackson Musical”

UPDATED “MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical” was supposed to open in the summer of 2020. When Broadway shut down in March 2020, “MJ” was not selling well. There were a lot of questions about the sustainability of the show after a critical and panned documentary about Jackson aired on HBO. A lot of clouds hung over Michael Jackson’s legacy.

UPDATED: The producers say they were very happy with the advance sale.

And then came the pandemic. Now “MJ” will open this winter, a year and a half later. Ironically, the pandemic might have been the best thing that ever happened.

The documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” came and went in March 2019. The ratings weren’t great. And many lawsuits emerged. The documentary was widely discredited by fans. And the principals saw their cases against Jackson’s estate dismissed from court.

A lawsuit brought by the Jackson estate against HBO will go to court ordered arbitration. The arbitrator will certainly know about the dismissals of Wade Robson’s and Jimmy Safechuck’s cases.

This week, a court ruled for the Estate in a major tax case. The government said the Estate owed $700 million based on much was earned after Jackson died in 2009. They said he was worth that much at his death. The Estate argued Michael’s image and career were worth about $7 million in June 2009. The IRS said the number was over $1 billion. A final ruling was the amount of $4 million.

Time has been kind to the producers of “MJ.” They probably should have waited a couple of years anyway. But now “MJ” can open without a cloud over it. The musical will encompass Michael’s early life, childhood, the Jackson 5 and his life through “Thriller.” The musical will end with everyone singing “Billie Jean” and dancing out of the theater.

Sanitized? Yes. Who cares? Naysayers can beat it.
Quelle:showbiz411

Don’t Stop til You Get Enough: Michael Jackson Musical “MJ” Will Get 7 Preview Weeks, Open February 1, 2022

The Michael Jackson musical is here.

“MJ” will get seven weeks of previews beginning December 20th and open February 1, 2022. This will be a show dependent on suspension of disbelief and a willingness to dance in the aisles.

There have been worse ideas.

The Michael Jackson musical will go from his childhood through the success of “Thriller,” and there before things get too weird. Maybe they’ll throw in some songs from “Bad,” too.

Running concurrently with the Temptations musical, “Ain’t Too Proud,” we’ll be getting real dose of Motown and a third show in which Berry Gordy is a character. That may be a record.

Look for a lot of Moonwalking, beaded silver gloves for sale in the lobby, and everyone singing “Billie Jean” together, standing in the theater. It should be a lot of fun.

Don’t stop til you get enough!

PS You know, this would after the story of the musical, but Michael did make his kids wear masks all those years. He was prescient!
Quelle:showbiz411

„MJ The Musical“: Neue Besetzung der Hauptrolle

Der ursprüngliche MJ-Darsteller Ephraim Sykes ist aufgrund eines Filmprojektes vom wiederholt verschobenen MJ Musical ausgestiegen. Jetzt wurde sein Nachfolger vorgestellt: Myles Frost.

Advance Sales for Michael Jackson Broadway Musical “MJ” Suffering Even Though King of Pop’s Record Sales are Soaring

“MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical” is suffering at the box office.

Advance sales are very poor so far because tourists are restricted from traveling to New York.

Most travelers from European countries, Britain, and many other countries are banned from entering the US right now depending on vaccinations, etc.

The result is all Broadway shows are suffering a lack of advanced sales. “MJ” isn’t alone, but the news isn’t good.

Aside from a couple of well sold Saturday nights in December, the shows are largely empty so far. On Ticketmaster.com, the seat maps are seas of blue dots waiting for purchase.

A website called StacyKnows.com just sent out a message saying they have a chunk of tickets available for December 9th, for $140. The first preview, on December 6th, still has a number of seats for sale.

It’s surprising, too, because Michael Jackson is on target to sell almost a million albums this year, half of which are copies of “Thriller.” His popularity is not an issue.

But the tourism restrictions, the prices, and fear of sitting in theaters is clearly inhibiting audiences from making plans.

We’ll look at more shows later this week.
Quelle:showbiz411

Full Casting Announced for Broadway’s Michael Jackson Musical MJ



Quentin Earl Darrington, Whitney Bashor, and more will join Myles Frost on stage in MJ on Broadway when it opens this fall.

Darrington will play Joseph Jackson and Rob, with Bashor as Rachel, Gabriel Ruiz as Alejandro, Antoine L. Smith as Berry Gordy and Nick, Joey Sorge as Dave, John Edwards as Jackie Jackson, Ayana George as Katherine Jackson, Apollo Levine as Quincy Jones and Tito Jackson, Tavon Olds-Sample as Michael, Lamont Walker II as Jermaine Jackson, and Zelig Williams as Marlon Jackson.

It is not clear to who some of the characters are supposed to be or representing.

The cast will also have few more for Ensemble and Swing for the show.
Quelle:mjvibe