WHEN this all-singing, all-dancing musical tribute to the 'King of Pop' and 'Greatest Entertainer of all Time' first played the Grand Opera House in April 2008, it was for one night only.
Come the announcement that Michael Jackson would be playing a residency at the London 02 Arena in 2009, the resurgence of Michael mania gave Thriller Live new momentum to stretch to three days in March that year on its second visit to York.
Jackson’s sudden death inevitably has bolstered Adrian Grant's show still more, so much so that it can sustain a full week’s run in 2011, and you can bet the audience has widened beyond the die-hards to the younger generation that has embraced his music anew, hats, gloves, Moonwalk and all.
The show itself has not changed its format, still being an essentially chronological trawl through Jacko's back catalogue from theJackson5 to History, albeit opening with the robotic Jam from 1992 and closing with the encore triple whammy of Bad, Thriller and Black Or White.
There are still five singing 'Michael Jacksons', one of them female (tour understudy lead Samantha Johnson, who deserves promotion) and one of them completing Jacko’s transition to white, albeit a big, thick-set, long-haired, Michael Bolton-style, rock-singing Jacko (Nathan James, from Reading, Berkshire). Well, as Michael preached, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or you’re white, and this show chimes with Jackson’s wish to make a difference, to unite in music.
Hey, the messianic tone of Ian Potter’s narration must be working its spell! Yet even in death, when eulogies go to new heights, it still feels over the top, and you remember why Jarvis Cocker once aired more than his views at Jacko’s BRIT Awards performance of the preposterous Earth Song. Here, Heal The World is accompanied by graphics of Martin Luther King, JFK, Lennon, Geldof, Bono, Mandela and now Obama, implicitly granting Jacko the status of world statesman.
Music makes a difference when it doesn’t try so hard to make a difference, and that’s when Jackson and his magnificent song and dance was at its best: not the proselytising Wacko Jacko but the Jackson of the Motown 25 show, performing Billie Jean on stage alone - a routine recreated to maximum dazzle by Sean Christopher.
Sit back, no, don’t sit back, stand up and enjoy the hits all over again on Jacko’s journey from Motown wonderboy (Blaze Ellis Porter) to king of soul, disco and pop.
This isn’t This Is It, the stage design and Jackson fashions are merely serviceable, but Thriller Live is a thrilling, funky, often fun celebration with a hard-working band, super-energised dancers and a multitude of Michaels. Best of all, Gary Lloyd’s dance routines for Smooth Criminal and Blood On The Dancefloor would surely have had MJ tipping his hat in appreciation.
Performances: tonight, tomorrow and Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 5pm and 8.30pm; Saturday,4pm and 8pm.
Box office: 0844871 3024 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk
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