MJ recoups

https://playbill.com/article/broadways-mj-the-musical-recoups

Any thoughts?

It seems to have done better than most predicted.

I haven't seen it.

This show is a monster hit and will be an even BIGGER hit in London.

Jarethan said: "BETTY22 said: "This show is a monster hit and will be an even BIGGER hit in London."

Wasn’t it originally in London. I know there was a Michael Jackson musical, and I thought it was this one."

You’re thinking of Thriller - Live, the concert revue that ended its long run about a month earlier than expected because of the COVID shutdown.

Wasn't Moulin Rouge ridiculously expensive? Between the set and everything I think their capitalization was quite high. And I assume it's probably more expensive to license music through a bunch of different artists than it is just from one artist (also Moulin Rouge probably has to pay royalties for the movie too, right?), so I imagine their weekly running costs are somewhere around $1 million with the cast size as well (not that MJ has a small cast either)

Call_me_jorge said: "Kind of shocked they they were able to recoup in a shorter time frame than Moulin Rouge. Wonder how far off they are from recouping."

It's crazy because I thought the staging was better for MJ. I think a lot of the work was actually done by Michael and his crew for the tours. This show had material that pulled mostly directly from those sources that honestly prob saved money. Also I do not think people understand that for a ton of black Americans this was THE MJ concert they never had and it delivered. People are mostly not thinking about the controversies when booking this. As a performance I think it is one of the best on broadway in years an greatly underrated in part due to the subject.

I will also say Frost was so good as MJ it is hard to see anyone being as good. A lot of shows die when a level of performer like Lea Michelle exits. I am interested to see the performances from other people in the role.

As I said in the previews thread, MJ has devoted fans who don't believe he did it, but there is also a general apathy towards the allegations surrounding him. I don't know if it's because he's no longer with us but even among people who believe he did it there tends to be a *shrug* sense about it. This was always going to be a big hit. The mans legend has only grown in death.

inception said: "https://playbill.com/article/broadways-mj-the-musical-recoupswebpage

Any thoughts?

It seems to have done better than most predicted.

I haven't seen it."



I think this show has an unreal future!

Regardless of where you stand on the actual MJ and his “alleged” wrongdoings - the show is a hit and a lot of hard work went into it. “Lazy” in terms of another jukebox musical that will print money? Sure. The people involved with creating the show are far from lazy. just because you don’t like the source material doesn’t make it bad.

dangeresque49 said: "Also I do not think people understand that for a ton of black Americans this was THE MJ concert they never had and it delivered. People are mostly not thinking about the controversies when booking this. As a performance I think it is one of the best on broadway in years a greatly underrated in part due to the subject.

I will also say Frost was so good as MJ it is hard to see anyone being as good. A lot of shows die when a level of performer like Lea Michele exits. I am interested to see the performances from other people in the role."

I saw the show on tour last night in San Francisco. I got lottery tickets for $30 each. The Orpheum was sold out. The actor who played the adult Michael, Roman Banks, did a fine job overall. (I can’t compare him to Myles Frost.)

The musical had its moments but I was a lot more bored than I was expecting, mostly because the book - while occasionally clever in structure - was increasingly monotonous but kept intruding on the real reason most of the audience was there - to hear and see an ersatz Michael Jackson performance. (The real Michael Jackson stopped performing in the United States decades before his death.)

But there’s enough to satisfy the Michael Jackson fans, of whom there are many. I’m not surprised it is a big hit, both on Broadway and on tour.

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "sad when garbage like this makes insane money

what a lazy production"

It wasn't garbage, nor was it lazy. Myles Frost was transcendent, and Christopher Wheeldon's choreography was excellent.

Also, I'm not sure why people are surprised that this recouped. It is a musical about the biggest pop star of all time, a pop star who also had a massive global following.