Fewer people have lived lives as fascinating, tragic, bizarre and riddled with controversy as Michael Jackson. He never necessarily chose to be famous, but instead was manufactured for it, almost out of the cradle. After a rough childhood of constant performing and immediate fame, Jackson gripped the planet by the throat in a way that is arguably irreplicable.
In 2022, a jukebox Broadway show arose in an attempt to capture and pay homage to his stardom. MJ The Musical is a bio-musical that was made in cooperation with the Michael Jackson Estate. As such, it strays almost entirely from the less-than-glamorous aspects of Jackson’s life, and focuses only on one moment in time — the lead up to his 1992 Dangerous World Tour — jumping intermittently to crucial moments in his career. The touring version of this show is making its Eugene debut Tuesday, July 22, at the Hult Center, with shows until Sunday, July 27.
Josh A. Dawson, who currently plays Quincy Jones — the notable record producer who collaborated with Jackson on his top albums, Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) — has worked with the show since it was born in 2017. “I was with the original lab,” he says.
In Broadway, a “lab” is when a show is just rising from the ground, and the production crew gathers actors to stage, costume and block the show without an audience. As the show grows, it is performed in front of audiences such as producers and theater owners before being transitioned to the Broadway stage.
“It’s so interesting when you’re building a new piece of theater,” Dawson tells Eugene Weekly. “There are days that you come in and you have learned a whole bunch of music and choreography, and then the next day, everything will be changed. You don’t really get married to anything, but you become a vessel to end a conduit of creativity.”
After working in the lab, Dawson focused on other acting gigs (he portrayed Harry Belafonte in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and toured with Hamilton as Aaron Burr), but has been back touring with the show since 2023. Comparing the time he left the production in its infancy to its final Broadway product, he says “I think what they ended on is the message that they started off with, and that was to just tell a human side of this artist, and I think that they successfully did that. That’s why it is resonating so much with audiences.”
He continues, “Obviously, the music is great, the dancing is great, the entertainment is great. But I think that people get a glimpse of this person that was very sheltered from society and culture.” The show’s highly choreographed soundtrack includes the biggest staples of Jackson’s career, from “I Want You Back” and “ABC” to “Billie Jean” and “Smooth Criminal.” It also sprinkles in several of his deeper cuts and ballads to round out the full range of his musical impact.
In terms of how the show navigates the darker aspects of Jackson’s legacy, Dawson says that the Broadway show is very family-friendly and will not stray from that. He also notes, “I think controversy is a bit subjective. And, of course, the brilliance of the writing is that people can go into this piece — as long as they go in with an open mind — to be able to hear a story. Not the story, not what is right or wrong, not the truth or what is not true, just a story of this artist.”
He says that Jackson “never claims to be perfect. None of us do, but there’s no doubt about the impact that he has had on pop culture.”
Dawson says he feels that his performance of Jones and these real-life pop culture events are portrayed “through gratitude. I feel a sense of responsibility to say thank you in every way that I move on stage, and every way that I breathe and I talk and I say.” For Dawson, MJ the Musical is “an ode to these artists.”
He says that the best part of the show is the musical sequence at the top of the second act.
“The show gets about 15 minutes of just quintessential Michael Jackson entertainment and it’s a hodgepodge of different numbers that are all woven together to tell its own story. And I will leave it at that, because I don’t want to give too much away,” Dawson says. “Make sure you get your cocktails, make sure you use the bathroom, so you are back in your seat at the top of the second act. The level of entertainment, the quality of craftsmanship, is unlike anything you will ever see on a stage.”
The Eugene residency will be Dawson’s last performance with MJ the Musical. As he has been touring nonstop for four straight years, first with Hamilton and now with MJ, Dawson is in need of a rest. Be sure to bid him farewell at MJ the Musical at the Hult Center this upcoming week.
MJ the Musical is 7:30 pm Tuesday, July 22, through Thursday, July 24, 8 pm on Friday, July 25, 2 pm and 8 pm on Saturday, July 26, and 1 pm and 6:30 pm on Sunday, July 27, at Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall. Tickets start at $49 and are available at HultCenter.org