A hotly-anticipated Broadway musical about Michael Jackson makes only a throwaway mention of the singer's alleged pedophile past - with one of its writers even questioning whether two of the singers' accusers were telling the truth.
MJ: The Musical, which began previews at the Neil Simon Theater on December 6, is set in 1992 - the year before allegations against Jackson emerged in public, but well after he'd met at least one of his accusers.
The show which runs for two hours and 30 minutes, barely makes mention of Jackson's sordid past. Reviews of the show say the allegations were addressed in one simple throwaway line delivered by one of Jackson's managers: 'Who the hell is this family he wants to bring on tour?'
One tweeter was skeptical about a musical lionizing the alleged child abuser, writing: 'way to celebrate a pedophile,' while another Twitter commenter suggested that Jackson, who died in 2009, is simply too big a figure in pop culture to cancel.
Meanwhile, she show's writer Lynn Nottage has flip-flopped on whether she believes the claims Jackson is an abuser, saying she felt two of his accusers were truthful in 2019, only to query whether their claims were accurate in a separate interview weeks later.
In 1986, the singer met James Safechuck, a 10-year-old boy who appeared with him in a Pepsi ad. Safechuck would later go on to recount his allegations of sexual abuse against the pop star in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.
By 1993, a year after the Dangerous Tour kicked off, Los Angeles police was already investigating claims that Jackson molested four children.
Early reviews for the jukebox musical, which stars Myles Frost as Jackson (above), reveal that there are little more than passing references to sexual abuse allegations against the singer
MJ: The Musical is already onstage for previews at the Neil Simon Theater. Its official opening night is on February 1
Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, faced charges of child molestation, abduction and extortion but was acquitted in 2003
In the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, James Safechuck and Wade Robson (right) revealed that the King of Pop sexually abused them numerous times as children. Above, the pair during a 2019 BBC interview
The musical was written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.
It is produced by Jackson's estate and Columbia Live Stage and features 37 songs from the singer's iconic catalog, though it mostly focuses on the music up to the 1992 Dangerous Tour, the main setting of the show.
'The show is very much anchored in one particular moment in time,' Wheeldon told Playbill in 2018.
'I always bring up the fabulous movie that Spielberg made about Lincoln: You take one key moment, I suppose, in the history of someone’s life and then sort of use that as an anchor point for past storytelling and, perhaps, some kind of prophecy of what’s to come. We'll be doing that with this story.'
It stars Myles Frost as Jackson and Quentin Earl Darrington as Joseph Jackson. Frost joined the cast in June after Ephraim Sykes left to film a movie, according to Deadline.
Tickets for the show range from $59 to as high as $225 for orchestra seats.
In 2019, Nottage told the Daily Mail that she believed Safechuck and Wade Robson, who detailed his allegations alongside Safechuck in the extensive HBO documentary, were 'telling the truth' - but just days later she queried the veracity of men's allegations in a separate interview.
Speaking to the New York Times, she said: 'Were they ultimately telling the truth? I cannot 100 percent say so, because I'm not judge and jury, and it’s not my place to do that.'
Playwright Lynn Nottage first told Daily Mail that she believed Safechuck and Robson were 'telling the truth,' but later told the New York Times, 'I cannot 100 percent say so'
During the course of the four-hour film, Safechuck and Robson offered explicit details about the years-long abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Jackson, during which the singer would allegedly gain favor with the boys' families by arranging for them to travel with him.
The film accuses the King of Pop of even staging a mock wedding complete with vows and a diamond ring with Safechuck.
Wade and Robson both claimed they were molested by the singer in his expansive Neverland ranch in Santa Barbara County, California.
'Michael tried to penetrate me in my anus with his penis, trying for a while, and I guess was able to a bit, but it was really painful, too painful for me, so he stopped,' Robson said, adding that he was 14 at the time.
When asked if Jackson's estate would let her explore Jackson's life in full, Nottage said: 'I hope so. I think it would be a dishonor to
