“MJ: The Musical: Controversy Surrounds Omission of Child Abuse Allegations”

A new musical about the life of Michael Jackson which has arrived in London’s West End has come under fire for making no mention of the child abuse allegations which plagued the King of Pop’s career.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and lifelong Jackson fan Lynn Nottage said she wanted to focus on the singer’s music rather than delve into the scandal.

MJ: The Musical portrays Jackson’s life up until 1992, a year before the first sexual abuse allegations against the singer surfaced.

‘Do I believe he was a paedophile? I don’t know that I can say one way or the other… It does hurt my heart to think about the possibility that it could be true, and I pray that it isn’t true, and that’s all I can do,’ Nottage has said.

Jackson’s children Prince, 27, Paris, 25, and Blanket, 22, attended the premiere of MJ at the Prince Edward Theatre in London on Wednesday night. 

Myles Frost stars as Michael Jackson in MJ: The Musical which arrived in London on Wednesday night

Michael Jackson died aged 50 in 2009. The play does not touch on the allegations of child abuse he faced

Jackson’s children Prince Jackson, Paris Jackson and Blanket Jackson attend the opening night of “MJ: The Musical” at Prince Edward Theatre

Their father died at the age of 50 in 2009 following a cardiac arrest he suffered after having Propofol administered as a sleep aid.

MJ first opened on Broadway in 2022 and proved to be a major hit, winning four Tony Awards including best choreography for its British director Christopher Wheeldon. Myles Frost also won best performance by an actor in a leading role.

It has been received well by theatre fans and grossed $170.9 million at the box office by January.

But US critics have hit out at the failure to address the shocking allegations. Some have described the play as ‘sanitised’, a ‘monument to misconduct’ and ‘very smooth, somewhat criminal’.

A New York Times review was headlined: ‘In MJ, no one’s looking at the Man in the Mirror’. Meanwhile, the New York Stage Review wrote: ‘Michael Jackson is today a credibly accused child molester, and MJ succeeds only if you can ignore that fact.’

In 1993, Jackson was accused of molesting 13-year-old boy Jordan Chandler. The case was settled out of court for $22million dollars.

Ten years later, criminal charges were brought against Jackson after a 12-year-old former cancer patient Gavin Arviso also came forward to say he had been abused. But the singer was ultimately acquitted in 2005 following a trial.

Once the trial was over Jackson – who had been facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges – left the country, moving to the island nation of Bahrain, located in the Persian Sea.

He eventually returned to the United States and had been preparing for his comeback tour in 2009 when he was found unresponsive inside his Holmby Hills home.

But in 2019, a documentary called Leaving Neverland saw the late popstar face further accusations of abuse. 

Michael Jackson performs at the Superbowl in 1993. This was the same year the first allegations of child abuse surfaced

Wade Robson (right) and James Safechuck (left) both alleged child abuse at the hands of Jackson 

Jackson is pictured with a young Wade Robson in an image shown on Leaving Neverland

The gates to Michael Jackson’s famous Neverland estate are pictured

Wade Robson and James Safechuck both bravely described in graphic detail how they were allegedly molested by Jackson as young children. This has been categorically denied by the Jackson estate.

Mr Robson, now a 41-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was five years old. He went on to appear in three Jackson music videos. His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period.

Mr Safechuck, now 45, said in his suit that he was nine when he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial. He said Jackson called him often and lavished him with gifts before moving on to sexually abusing him.

Last August, a California appeals court revived lawsuits from the two men. The judges ruled that the men can validly claim that the two Jackson-owned corporations that were named as defendants in the cases had a responsibility to protect them.

Lifelong Jackson fans Nottage and Wheeldon have both said they want the show to be about Jackson’s music. 

After the Leaving Neverland documentary, Nottage initially said she found their accounts believable.

Myles Frost performs on the opening night of MJ: The Musical in London on Wednesday night

The actor did the splits during the curtain call for the press night performance

Cast members Philippa Stefani, Mitchell Zhangazha and Myles Frost bow at the curtain call

Paris, 25, cut a glamorous figure for the event as she donned a dark brown midi dress with a strap detail

Also in attendance at the event was Marisha Wallace who looked incredible in a silver off the shoulder dress

Former Strictly stars Arlene Phillips and Darcey Bussell both opted for all black looks

Jeremy Vine put on an animated display as he arrived to the show in a navy suit along with a brown trench coat

But in a later interview she said: ‘The men came across as very believable. But here’s the caveat: were they ultimately telling the truth? I cannot 100 per cent say so, because I’m not judge and jury, and it’s not my place to do that.’

She also said: ‘There’s so much story to tell about Michael Jackson that you can’t do it in one musical… We felt that, as a musical, what we wanted to focus on was the music.’ 

Wheedon said that it was ‘a very difficult question to answer’ if he believed Jackson was a child abuser.

The Royal Ballet associate also said he did not think about pulling out of the project after Leaving Neverland was aired.

Jackson always denied allegations he was involved in abusing underage boys. His Neverland Ranch, in California, sold for $22million in December 2020. 

MJ is running at the Prince Edward Theatre in Soho. A Michael Jackson jukebox musical, Thriller Live, has also been on the West End stage since 2009.