Review: Thriller - Live
“And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver. For no mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller!”
The touring cast and crew of Thriller - Live have moon-walked their way (cheesy MJ pun - check!) onto the New Theatre stage, creating a real buzz in the capital. Sold out shows are exactly what the venue needs and indeed deserves, and what better way to get young peeps out to the theatre than two hours of classic Michael Jackson tunes performed with the energy and enthusiasm that he was renowned for. Now, I’m not going to get into the politics of the man’s life as the show steers well away from any off stage antics and instead focuses completely on ‘da musik’, which cannot be described as anything other than awesome (or any other synonymous adjective, of which I will not list in interest of this articles length. Hope that’s cleared up for you)
J’amow! The show kicked off with an X factor- style photo montage of the ‘King of Pop’ (clichd MJ dubbing check!), with outrageous figures flashing up on the screen - 178 Grammies, 67 billion fans and all that - in true ITV fashion, with the same music and all! Where’s Dermot O’Ant and Dec Are So Much Better when you need him, eh? The show was done like a concert, with different singers performing different tracks from the many stages of Jackson’s career - from the ‘J’ Five right up to his last decent album. The young Michael stole the show, but the other four were equally ‘on the money’, with none of the cheap impersonations you might see on the tellybox. The use of a woman as one of the MJ’s just showed how amazing his vocal range was, although I noticed she refrained from any scrotum grabbing when obvious opportunities arose, for obvious reasons I guess
The place was alive like I’ve never seen it before, the handing out of free glow sticks only adding to the occasion and the excitement grew as hit after hit was reeled out in front of us. The fantastic accompanying band and brilliant dancers gave it that authenticity and the lighting was used very effectively throughout. Highlights of the show included the expertly choreographed Smooth Criminal, with everyone waiting expectantly for the ‘cool leany thing’, which was performed as you’d hope (i.e. cool and leany), the use of Les Mis style flags in Can You Feel It and the lovely press lady’s former classmate’s guitar solo in Beat It (don’t ask). The whole thing was just thrilling (mwahaahaha) and in fact the only disappointments were the lack of graveyard in the title tune and the lack of Jarvis Cocker’s behind in Earth Song. What a shame!
So, if you want to shake your body (down to the ground), learn the first three letters of the alphabet (ABC in case you were curious) or just wanna be startin’ something, then I’d suggest this for you. However, it’s all sold out, so unless you get lucky with returns (029 2087 8889) then I guess it's This Is It on DVD. Pah! (Oh, sneaky DVD plug- check!)
Until Saturday 30th October at the New Theatre.
Info Sport & Leisure Performing Arts Acting, Drama and Theatre
