Michael Jackson Musical ‘MJ’ Postpones Broadway Opening Until Next Spring Due To Coronavirus Shutdown
MJ, the Michael Jackson stage musical headed for Broadway, will begin previews next March, an eight-month postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
The new dates were announced today by producers Lia Vollack Productions and The Michael Jackson Estate.
The world premiere of MJ, featuring Jackson’s music, will begin previews on Monday, March 8, 2021, at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre. Opening night is set for Thursday, April 15. Prior to Broadway’s shutdown on March 12, MJ was set to begin performances this July.
Starring Ephraim Sykes (Ain’t Too Proud) as Michael Jackson, MJ will feature a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and a score comprised of Jackson’s hit songs. Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph.
Anyone who purchased tickets to the previous dates will receive an automatic refund back to the credit card used for the original purchase. Anyone who doesn’t receive a refund by May 30 should contact the point of purchase to request a refund.
The rescheduling marks the second postponement of a major Broadway production in as many days: Yesterday, the revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker and directed by John Benjamin Hickey, announced a postponement of more than a year, from the planned March 13 2020 preview date to March 19, 2021. That production’s venue – Broadway’s Hudson Theatre – is booked for this Fall by the limited engagement return of David Byrne’s American Utopia, though many Broadway insiders don’t expect Broadway to reopen before January 2021.
https://deadline.com/2020/05/michael-jackson-musical-mj-broadway-postpones-opening-2021-1202933577/
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Edited to add:
Seemingly Nothing Can Stop the Michael Jackson Musical, Which Has Rescheduled Its Run to 2021
Come hell, pandemic, or high water, the cursed Michael Jackson musical is still making its way toward Broadway.
Today, producers of the musical MJ, which was originally supposed to start performances this July before opening in August, have announced that it will instead start performances at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 8, 2021, and open April 15.
As of now, Broadway theaters are officially closed until Labor Day due to the coronavirus, though the shutdown will likely extend further, given the numerous questions about how theaters could ensure the safety of patrons, staff, and performers, and how the industry itself could recover economically.
MJ is the second major Broadway production to jump its performance schedule all the way to next spring; the Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker–led Plaza Suite announced yesterday that it would play the Hudson Theatre from March 19 through July 18, 2021.
The pandemic is just one of a series of crises that have plagued the development of the musical.
After the Sundance premiere in January 2019 of Leaving Neverland, a documentary that focused on Wade Robson and James Safechuck’s allegations that Jackson molested them, the production canceled its planned out-of-town tryout in Chicago, citing an Actor’s Equity strike (though the union insisted the strike would not have significantly affected its plans).
Later, in April 2019, book writer Lynn Nottage and director Christopher Wheeldon did a surreal interview with the New York Times in which they said they found the men in the documentary “very believable,” as Wheeldon put it, “but our position in making this show is that we’re trying to make a show that’s balanced.” (Jackson’s estate, which is involved in the musical, has denounced Robson and Safechuck as “liars.” )
For now, when and if it opens in 2021, MJ is still set to star Ephraim Sykes as Michael Jackson.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/mj-michael-jackson-musical-reschedules-opening-date.html
