On the required levels of belief to watch a show: MJ the Musical
I grew up with Michael Jackson being a hero in my household, an icon, the picture of a complicated black man who, assailed by the media, had become the most famous person on earth. All that is true.
It’s also true that he was a sexual predator. Or so it seems to me. I’ve watched over the last 30 years as accusations have come out, been denied, been settled, more accusations have arisen, deeper evidence, more arguments, documentaries, more victims coming forth, more settlements. And I will admit that at some point, I backed away from the discussion. It was too painful for me. Michael Jackson died and I stopped listening to his music - accepting that I might never resolve myself with the music I grew up with.
So, what is required of an audience to watch a musical about Michael Jackson? This is actually a very interesting dramaturgical question. I would suggest that baked into the piece would have to be a request that the audience not think about the allegations of him being a sexual predator and just have fun jamming out OR a belief that the allegations are not true, and have never been true. Because if you think about it, or do believe the allegations to be true, wouldn’t that be an incredibly distracting factor for an audience to undertake? Wouldn’t that be a shadow hanging in the back of your mind all through intermission? How could you tell a story that way?
It has been written and commented in defenses of Michael Jackson that he was never convicted. But neither was Woody Allen right? I mean Bill Cosby had his conviction overturned and Roman Polanski manage to escape justice as well. While I do believe in “innocent until proven guilty”, are convictions and court sentences really the way we, as a society, make moral judgements? And though the court of public opinion is hardly an impartial one, the court system is also not impartial as we all know from watching the rich and powerful sidestep justice time and time again. How would we feel about musicals about any of the great men above which omitted their crimes? At a time when we are examining history more clearly, how can we not criticize historical retellings that omit uncomfortable facts? The prevailing criticism of HAMILTON remains the sweeping aside of slavery in its plot. And that is a valid criticism. Let’s go closer to the bone though - R Kelly is a much admired musician as well, which people continue to lift up despite his abuse, despite the overwhelming evidence and convictions. R Kelly the musical about “a flawed man” coming to Broadway in fall 2028? What doors does MJ the musical open? What does it take for us to abandon the artistry of abusers? Do we just throw away his entire catalog? And with that my childhood? What about the other abusers and racists and misogynists, homophobe artists, manipulative producers? Do we throw away all art and begin to create a new world from scratch full of art created by morally pure artists? A mighty task. And it would be folly to believe that we weren’t influenced by all that history of art anyway…
That is unless you do not believe that Michael Jackson wasn’t an abuser. In which case, the argument transforms into another a very different one.
In the black community we bravely defend our leaders and heroes. This is because for so long our leaders I’ve been demonized, literally murdered or if they were lucky, simply torn to shreds in the press. All this is true. But to say that the reviews of MJ the Musical are racist (as many have claimed) because they bring up his history of sexual abuse and how the musical did not speak to it, is a weak and frankly desperate attempt to defend or rewrite the memory of Michael Jackson. One defense I saw on social media speculated on if a white reviewer fixating on Michael Jackson’s pedophilia accusations was himself a pedophile. This sort of argument attempts to drive the conversation about sexual abuse into the shadows, a technique long used by the church and other conservative forces, to silence conversations. It is beneath us.
Michael Jackson was my hero - but I will not die a hill defending his legacy. He deserves stern criticism and honest reflection. Only then can we reconcile ourselves with the great art he created.