www.broadwayworld.com: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is currently at work developing the book of a stage musical based on the life and career of music legend Michael Jackson.
Following the premiere of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland earlier this year, in which two men allege sexual abuse at the hands of Jackson, some questions arose as to how the musical would approach the history of pedophilia and sexual abuse allegations brought against the singer.
2 comments:
I think this show will be interesting to see since they're proceeding amidst the accusations. I think they know that if they don't include this portion of the Michael Jackson story that a lot of people will be angry, so I wonder how they'll chose to tell this story. Jackson has become polarizing in american culture because of his accusations, and I wonder how the play will handle that. personally, I don't say that I necessarily agree with proceeding, just because I don't think that we should continue applauding individuals who have sexually abused anyone, but I do think that it could be a poignant story as long as they don't ignore the whole story, or sugar coat it to only applaud his successes. I hope that things are honest and tell the victims stories too, rather than just talking about the music Jackson made. I think it's promising that a woman of color is writing the musical, since hopefully she will be more aware than an old white man would be.
I think that the process of developing and staging this musical will be and is currently an incredibly sticky and problematic situation for everyone involved, from Columbia Live, Lynn Nottage, to the rest of the surviving Jackson family themselves. I for one, am here for the drama, I think that if this show goes up, there will be some serious repercussions as to the content and later on the message that the show is sending to the world. I personally saw Leaving Neverland and was very sympathetic towards the victims, and I most definitely believed them and was forced to rethink my views as both Michael Jackson as a person alongside Michael Jackson as an artist, you cannot separate the two. Here's where I criticize Nottage, she makes these remarks as to trusting the artist to create good work, and to me this seems like she doesn't believe the accusations and she's making this musical anyways, totally her right. But I think that if she's going to get anywhere with this musical, especially after his name is nearly completely tarnished, she's going to have to make this a tragedy.
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