The Michael Jackson Musical Is Set To Premiere In 2019

Though we’ve known a stage musical based on the life of pop icon Michael Jackson was coming, we didn’t have many details, including the musical’s name. Now that the producers are releasing more information, it’s clear that it was worth the wait.

The show, titled “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough,” is set to premiere at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago, where it will run from Oct. 29 through Dec. 1 before heading to Broadway sometime in 2020.

The book is being written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, and it will be directed and choreographed by Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.

The show will center around the period of Jackon’s “Dangerous World Tour” between 1992 and 1993, which visited 70 cities and was attended by more than 3.5 million people. The score will include many of Jackson’s hit songs from throughout his long and successful career. But the creators also hope to give a glimpse of the man behind the music.

“We are all very clear that we don’t want this to be a concert or an impersonation show,” Wheeldon told the Chicago Tribune. “We want it to be a portrait of the artist, a man of contradictions that contained so much beauty. A life like Michael’s was so rich, dense and troubled. But there were these moments of great lightness. We are interested in celebrating Michael, and in breaking down his songs and really listening to them.”

Since his untimely death in 2009 at the age of 50, his life and career have been the subject of two Cirque du Soleil shows. “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” seeks to differentiate itself from those productions.

“This is not a Cirque du Soleil show, nor a tribute show, nor a hagiography,” Nottage told the Chicago Tribune. “We are endeavoring to tell the story of one moment in the life of a very complicated man whose life was very fraught.”

“Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” is being produced by the Michael Jackson estate and Columbia Live Stage and was originally announced in June 2018.

Are you excited for “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”?