Review: THRILLER LIVE, King's Theatre, Glasgow, April 18 2016
Direct from London's West End, Thriller Live promises to be a spectacular concert created to celebrate the career of Michael Jackson.
Thriller Live relies on bright lights and loud music to distract the audience from the fact there is no depth to this production. On a few occasions we are told some of the history of Michael Jackson but the narration is rushed and, at times, incoherent. Very early on in the show they adopted the good old panto trick "which side of the auditorium is louder" in an attempt to get the audience involved.
The choreography has occasional "wow" moments but for the majority of the show, it is a bit of a shambles. The scene settings are vague and bizarre. At the end of Act One I was struggling to imagine how they could possibly sustain this for another hour.
Good vocals from Angelica Allen and Rory Taylor make the evening more tolerable. Taylor, of ITV'S Superstar and the UK tour of RENT, has excellent rock vocals and brings some energy to the show with Beat It and Dirty Diana. One performer was dressed the part, in full Michael Jackson costume but while he was an excellent dancer, he lip synced the song which was off-putting.
This was actually my second time seeing Thriller Live and although I wasn't blown away the first time around, I decided to give it a second chance. Unfortunately things seem to have changed for the worse. One of the highlights first time around was the boy that played young Michael and performed some of the Jackson 5 hits. On this tour he has been replaced with a projection - a very poor projection.
Combining the music of Michael Jackson, dancers and a few good vocalists may seem like a recipe for success but this tour of Thriller Live just feels lazy and left me cold.
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