Photo by Mathew Murphy
“Michael Jackson” thrills fans at the National Arts Centre
Tuesday 31 December 2024
By Tom Malaba
On December 31, 2024, ‘Micheal Jackson’ (Jordan Markus) brought the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada to life with the deceased King of Pop’s songs, and electrifying moves.
With relaxed hair and a near-perfect facial resemblance to the legendary musician, Jordan Markus kept the capacity center’s eyes glued to the stage.
When the curtains were drawn exposing the black hut, the velvet jacket, the V-shaped white T-shirt, black pants, and black shoes accompanied by white stock; there was no doubt ‘Michael Jackson’ was in the house.
A four-time Tony Award-winning musical showcasing Michael Jackson’s unique and unparalleled artistry; Jordan Markus, kicked it off with the song “Just Beat It” as he stamped his presence on stage supported by neon lighting to execute his breakdancing moves.
Photo: Mathew Murphy
The multiple Tony Award®-winning musical centers around Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour. The tour had a thrilling sell-out crowd on Broadway, in cities across North America, London’s West End, and Hamburg, Germany.
The musical is a creation of Tony Award®-winning Director/Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage to give life to MJ’s music 15 years after his death.
The musical is a story of the Jackson family and its music journey. Born of Musician parents, shows the father starting off his children’s (The Jackson 5 – Taryll Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Michael Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson) music journey.
With a firm hand, Joe Jackson holds together his children and culminates in staging their first show; Amateur Night, featuring the Jackson 5, with their Afro, cowboy hats, and waist coats in New York back in 19. Another show “Soul Train” is a success as the Jackson 5 performed in their bell bottom trousers and tight-fitting tops a fashion statement for the 1970s.
However, the father’s high-handedness is met with MJ’s independent mind but when the father becomes physical and the failure by his siblings to keep up with MJ’s push for excellence, MJ moves on.
But when he gets burnt during a performance, he gets a stint in the hospital, MJ is left glued to pain-killing pills. When the media learns MJ’s dependence on pills, his career is threatened but all that is overshadowed by his celebrity status.
But when his father confronts him about the pills, MJ brushes it off claiming he does not even drink Pepsi cola.
In the musical, the role the character playing MJ in his teens when he signs the Sony Corp, displays a perfect energetic Michael Jackson with his front kick, the clutching-move, showing he is nearly on top of the world as opposed to the main character. The red jacket, tight pants, perfectly fitting black shoes, and physic add color to his electrifying moves.
MJ goes beyond the singular moves and signature sound of the star, offering a rare look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Michael Jackson into legendary status.
Jordan Markus did incredible justice to MJ’s Moonwalking move. It’s one of the musician’s signature dances, where he does a backslide but it’s so perfect that it appears as if the musician is walking forward before crowning it with a perfect balance on his tiptoes.
Save for a perfect white jacket accompanied by a black armband, Jordan Markus falls short when he tries to execute MJ’s dance move, the “Smooth Criminal”. In the move, MJ and crew defied gravity by synchronizing a 45-degree bend without falling.
Unlike the lightweight Michael Jackson, Markus’ physical appearance limits his floating ability, but got compensated with his small piercing voice that brought him close to the legend. He was, however, betrayed by the mouthpiece that rendered him inaudible in the first hour of the two-and-half-hour show.
However, accompanied by a powerful lone light beam, being feasted on by eagle-sharp eyes, when MJ steps on stage with a small suitcase out of which he pulls a glittering velvet jacket, he lights up his audience with thunderous applause who vividly remembers Michael Jackson as wears it.
The MJ show cannot be done until one has performed his 1982 hit, “Thriller”. Featuring what people deal with in their private homes as creatures from the dead take over the night crawling across the land. Though it evokes fear, the music cannot afford the audience a blinking. However, MJ’s 1985 African famine relief hit ‘We are the World’ was no show.
The musical brings to the fore Michael Jackson’s rare talent as a music composer, lead musician, director, and an astute businessman.
MJ knew what he wanted and pushed himself beyond the limit ignoring critics to stamp himself among the greatest that the music industry has had.
As the year 2024 drew to a close a cross-section of the young and old, people of color that thronged the National Arts Centre gave a standing ovation to the cast as testimony that the legendary musician was worth the Six Grammy Awards.
The show organized by Broadway Across Canada will feature at the National Arts Centre from December 31 to January 5, 2025.
