21st Jan, 2009

Thriller Live is a concert-style show that celebrates the work of legendary performer Michael Jackson. This musical anthology begins with Jackson's early years as a teen sensation belting out ABC with his brothers and sisters to his breakthrough solo album Off the Wall and beyond. Those looking for history of Jackson's personal life should look elsewhere as this theatrical extravaganza is a breathtaking celebration of a musician whose work spans over three decades.

Jackson's vocals are provided by six very different singers who all bring a certain magic to each instantly recognisable hit. Kieran Alleyne plays the bundle of energy that led the Jackson Five in a strikingly accurate vocalisation for hits such as I Want You Back and the delightful Ben. Ben Foster, John Moabi and Roger Wright help fill in the middle years and hits such as Blame It On The Boogie and Rock With You, while US performer Ricko Baird brings to the stage some of the classic choreography that epitomises Jackson's Thriller and Bad period.

Perhaps the greatest discovery of the evening is Denise Pearson, who marries a sassy, shapely stage persona to some of Jackson's best loved tracks, producing something as exquisite as her rendition of The Way You Make Me Feel.

This is very much an ensemble company and the dance team here deserve a special mention. The choreography paints as lively and informative a picture of the changing decades as do Jackson's songs, and some of the set pieces, particularly the Billie Jean/Thriller/Bad set are, quite literally, thrilling.

Jonathan Park's set design and Nigel Catmur's lighting are complimented by LED screens creating some wonderful theatrical set pieces that are simple and yet remarkably effective.

27th Jan, 2009

It's not a show, or a musical, it's a concert. But as a concert it's very good theatre, a total blast in fact, and a salutary reminder that Michael Jackson's music is an important segment in the sequence from blues, jazz and Motown to rap and disco. It's the history of modern pop music, and it's the music the modern musical theatre forgot about.

Thriller Live comes with an almost repulsive set of recommendations in the programme from its own producers - " a wonderful man who has inspired me," that sort of horse manure - and of course there is no mention of Jackson's facelifts, weird obsession with Elizabeth Taylor, nor his strange home-based kindergarten that led to a series of court cases.

But the man's talent is the point, and there's not a song that you don't want to bask in as they roll off the stage in this wonderful show, covering all the great Jackson albums and ending with "Thriller", which spent thirty-seven weeks at the top of the charts and defined an era of social body-popping for those times.

Call me cheap, or call me common (I've been called a lot worse, including a taxi), but I much prefer this sort of honest up-and-at-you musical celebration of great pop and blues/rock music to the narcissistic indulgence of something like the current revival of Oliver! Every song here is better than, or at least as good as, anything Lionel Bart ever wrote, and Gary Lloyd's production frames them all in a nimbus of notable nostalgia.

There is a narrative thread to the first half, in the emergence of the Jackson Five, hot-gospelling and hand-jiving their way to prominence, and the second half sags into some awful soft-centred political knee-jerk stuff about the legacy of JFK, Nelson Mandela and now Barack Obama. But the staging of the musical numbers, vivid light show and constant brilliance of the musical playing in John Maher's band keep us riveted.

The star of the show is little Kieran Alleyne as the young Jackson, and he is superbly supported by the absolutely wonderful Denise Pearson - lead vocalist of Five Star; who the hell were they? - who seems to morph into Michael in her soprano moments, the bulky and skilful tenor Roger Wright and the excellent trio of Ricko Baird as the ultimate titfer-tipping, slide-walking MJ, and Ben Foster and John Moabi as his ideal interpreters.