William Powell

Now at the National Theatre, MJ is a jukebox musical that plays like a concert. It will have you rocking in your seat. It features phenomenal dancing but is short on story and pathos — though it does touch on the price of fame and how much Black achievement is driven by adversity. The musical book, by Pulitzer- and Obie-winner Lynn Nottage, jumps around in time — it’s not a chronological buildup to Jackson’s later hits from his earlier ones.