MJ: The Musical fails to address child abuse claims which plagued Michael ... trends now
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
