Jackson Musical THRILLER-LIVE Finds Its Young 'Michaels'

Thriller - Live, billed as the UK's "next big musical", and featuring the mega-hit songs of Michael Jackson & The Jackson 5, has found their 'Young Michael', actually three of them reports UK theatre website WhatsOnStage. 

Layton Williams, Sterling Williams, and Kieran Alleyne have been cast in the musical and will rotate as the young Michael Jackson 

In connection with the West End transfer of the very successful tour of Thriller-Live, producers launched a major hunt to find a young undiscovered talent to sing the songs of the young Michael Jackson in the show, which will open on January 2 at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. Thriller - Live  is a spectacular, high-octane show specially created to celebrate the career of the world's greatest entertainer and undisputed King of Pop - Michael Jackson.

"Moonwalking" into the West End after three acclaimed UK tours and standing ovations across Germany, Holland and Scandanavia, Thriller - Live pays tribute to the musical hits and career of Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5.

Thriller - Live begins previews at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue on Friday January 2. Press night is Wednesday January 21. The show is booking for a strictly limited season to Sunday April 12. 

The family-friendly performance schedule means that Thriller - Live will be the first show with two West End performances each week on Sundays, at 3.00pm and 7.00pm. And with the credit crunch and high West End ticket prices seriously affecting theatre audiences, the producers of Thriller - Live have pegged top-price tickets for this limited season at just £49.50, which is substantially less than the current West End norm of more than £60.00.

Derek Nicol, of Flying Music explains, "Thriller - Live is an uplifting, feel-good show with incredible choreography and sensational songs that everyone knows and loves - it's just the sort of escapist entertainment people need to take their minds off how tough life is at the moment. Thriller - Live has high production values, a large company on stage and a live band - and it delivers high class entertainment that is suitable for everyone from 8 to 80. It's obvious to us from the recent early closing of West End musicals, cancellation of several planned UK tours, and the number of ticket discounts and promotions, that money is extremely tight and a lot of the current shows are struggling to fill their theatres. We want to make sure that the show is in the price bracket of as many people as possible." 

Paul Curran, COO of Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK, describes Thriller-Live as "The show is a celebration of one of the greatest music catalogues in history. We are thrilled to be involved and there are obviously many promotional and marketing opportunities between the show and our catalogue." 

In a phenomenal, unparallelled career, Michael Jackson has to date sold more than 750 million records, had 13 number one singles - more than any other male artist - and  is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. His numerous other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, including one for "Thriller" as the world's best-selling album of all time - 100 million copies and counting. 

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958, the seventh child of the Jackson family. He made his professional debut at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Hailed as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become among the world's best-selling records: "Off the Wall" (1979), "Thriller" (1982), "Bad" (1987), "Dangerous" (1991) and "HIStory"(1995). An early star of MTV and the art of making pop videos, Michael broke down racial barriers, transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music. 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of the "Thriller" album with the release of the double-disc album "Thriller 25", containing the original nine tracks from "Thriller", re-mixes and a new song called "For All Time". The album reached number one in eight countries, number two in the US, number three in the UK and was top 10 on over 30 national charts. To celebrate Michael's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a compilation album, "King of Pop" which featured tracks voted for by his fans. 

In Thriller - Live, the non-stop hits just keep on coming from "I Want You Back", "I'll Be There", "Show You The Way To Go", "Can You Feel It", "Rock With You", "She's Out Of My Life", "Thriller", "Beat It", "Ben", "ABC", "Man in the Mirror", "Dirty Diana", "Billie Jean", "Earth Song", and many, many more. 

To bring to life on stage the distinctive dancing and sound of many of pop's greatest hits, Thriller - Live includes eye-popping video footage and effects together with dazzling choreography by the show's award-winning director Gary Lloyd (who has previously worked with Leona Lewis, Will Young, Gareth Gates, Emma Bunton, Robbie Williams, Pink, Anastacia, Lemar; Rachel Stevens, Kelly Clarkson and Girls Aloud) and additional choreography by five-time MTV award-winning LaVelle Smith Jnr and and Kerys Nathan. 

Thriller - Live was originally conceived and created by Executive Director of the show, AdrIan Grant, a long time associate of Michael Jackson, and author of 'Michael Jackson - The Visual Documentary'.

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