What do you think can we cancel art? Should we cancel art?
If you talk about canceling artists, generally it's a great loss to culture. But also these are important conversations to have.
The Michael Jackson Musical is here, and so are some big questions. Jackson was definitely a genius. He was the survivor of an abusive childhood, an inspiration for Black Americans, a once in a generation performer. He was possibly also a pedophile. So as the joyful and acclaimed stage show MJ the Musical arrives in Australia, hot from a Broadway triumph, we ask some big questions about the man, his music, and where art meets real life. Everybody, let's get start it.
Where do you want to begin from the top. Bridget Cormack is the deputy editor of Review, our Art section in the Weekend Australian.
It was absolutely electric on Broadway. So I went there back in twenty twenty two during its premiere run and the audience was extremely vocal.
Don Scar looking for everybudy keep going.
So you know you had audience members yelling out go Michael, sort of chanting things and getting up and dancing in their seats. It's impossible not to get swept up in the excitement and the energy of these songs, songs that so.
Many of us grew up with.
So when I went to New York, I was a guest of Michael Castle Group, and now they've bought this musical to Australia. I went there on opening night to the Sea production, and there was definitely a sense of occasions. So there were so many people with sequin jackets on and beautiful gowns. At the end there was a standing ovation and people getting up to the dance to the encore number, which was great.
So here's what we can say about Michael Jackson the person. He was born in nineteen forty eight and rose to fame as the ultra gifted child singer in the Jackson Five under the hand of his domineering father Joe. Jackson, as an adult didn't take part in the culture, he was the culture. By his death at the age of just fifty in two thousand and nine, Jackson was simultaneously celebrated as the greatest performer of his age and someone who had transformed our understanding of pop music, and also
widely regarded as a highly unusual and idiosyncratic person. Allegations about sexual abuse had begun a rising in the early nineties when a thirteen year old boy said he'd engaged in sexual relations with Jackson. Jackson denied the allegations of abuse, but reached a multimillion dollar settlement with the boy's family.
In two thousand and two, Journalist Martin Basheer, who would later become notorious for an interview in which he allegedly tricked Princess Diana into thinking the royal family was plotting against her, aired interview footage where Jackson talked about sharing a bed with a twelve year old boy. He was charged with multiple counts of child molestation, but was acquitted. In the twenty tens. After Jackson's death, two men came forward, alleging he'd abused them from as young as seven years
of age. They tried, unsuccessfully to sue Jackson's estate. In twenty nineteen, their allegations were aired in a documentary.
Nearly a decade after his death. Renewed debate and grutiny tonight in the week of the explosive HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, where two men claim they were sexually abused by Michael Jackson for years, starting when they were just seven and ten years old.
And in twenty twenty six the matter will return to court.
When I was in New York, we were, as I said, guests of Michael Castle Group, and I was there with a bunch of journalists, and a couple of the journalists on the trip actually refused to go to see the music all over there. Personally, I felt, as a journalist, I should go and see the musical, to see what it's all about and see how it does or doesn't grapple with his difficult legacy. In Sydney, people were very
much there for a good night out. I mean, it's the premiere, you know, you've got the red carpet and that sort of thing. But as with the friend that I attended with, I imagine there were a lot of people who went home and said, well, hang on, you know what about these allegations. These weren't really dealt with in this show at all.
How did they handle that within the show itself.
It's interesting that one of the narrative threads throughout the work is this MTV film crew who are there to get a behind the scenes look of Michael Jackson. Preparing for this dangerous world tour, and you know these are journalists, So journalists is supposed to uncover the truth, but they don't touch on these allegations at all. There is another moment in the musical where Michael's facing a throng of journalists and one of them says, what about the allegations?
But that's it, and then the audience kind of is left to wonder what allegations are they referring to.
And what about other aspects of traumaal difficulty in his life? His abusive childhood, for example, is that touched upon?
Yeah, Actually, there's a huge storyline about his relationship with his father. So the musical goes back in time and looks at his childhood, his time in the Jackson five, and how his dad really really pushed him to perfection. And so in that sense, Michael kind of internalizes that voice, and he's seeking perfection for this upcoming tour. He's spending money, he doesn't want to cut corners. He wants everyone to be their best. He's even willing to throw Neverland on
the line to financially save this tour. And I think it's that sense of wanting to prove himself to his father.
Coming up, when, if ever, is it okay to cancel an artist? In review and throughout your career, you've covered all sorts of forms of art and a lot of artists who are now being reconsidered. George Orwell, for example, is the subject of a best selling book which reveals that he was kind of a creep to his wife. We've seen the same thing happen to Charles Dickens. We talk a lot about cancel culture, how it's very easy now for someone like a comedian to be canceled and
kind of wiped from the culture. What's your sense of how Michael Jackson is treated in that context.
Well, I read one interesting review that said, you know, audience members kind of need to compartmentalize in order to watch something like this, and that remains true. You can't dispute that this is fantastic, the fantastic performances. Roman Banks is amazing as Michael Jackson. He nails the moonwalk. He even gets his accent. I don't know if you can you can call it an accent, but you know the whispery way that he talks, and you know, these are performers at the top of their game and they put
on a fantastic show. These performers shouldn't be punished for what Michael Jackson did or did not do. But you also can't ignore these allegations. It's something that sort of sits in the back of your mind. If you talk about canceling artists generally, it's a great loss to culture, but also what happens to the conversations that we're having.
These are important conversations to have. So you know, you watch something like MJ and you go home and you have really important conversations about it and what does this art mean? And you know, is it okay that that I had a good experience, that I enjoyed this, So I think it deserves its audience.
It's interesting about the passage of time, isn't it thinking about say George Orwell. I can appreciate George Orwell's work, his art at the same time as feeling like he was probably a bit of a misogynous prick, you know, And that doesn't mean that I don't want to read Down and Out in Paris and London or think about animal farm. Same with Charles Dickens. I'm fine with a Christmas Carol or the new adaptation of Oliver Twists, the
spin off being shot in Australia, The Artful Dodger. It feels different about Michael Jackson to me, though, you know, it feels so recent, so fresh. Maybe it's because I see my own children falling in love with his music in the way that I did in the eighties as a kid myself. Is this something about the passage of time? Do you think that makes a difference.
Well, I think some of these allegations against Michael Jackson are still in progress, aren't they. So I think that's the awkward factor, because we don't know what's going to happen. I mean, he wasn't convicted when he was alive, but we don't know the outcome of these allegations.
If he were a pedophile. If it is found by a court that he did abuse them, the two men who accused him in the twenty tens, does that mean his musical is unviable? Do you think.
I think the producers would have to answer some Yeah, some difficult questions. It's really up to audiences whether this is a production that they want to go and see. Whether for them the love of his music and the artistry of the performers that are on stage. I don't know if outweighs the right word, but whether they can compartmentalize the other aspects to enjoy what is a good show?
Yeah, holding those two things together at once, that this person was flawed, but that he was also a genius. Does that happen a lot when you're out and about seeing you know, great works of art from history?
Well, I think if you look at opera, a lot of opera productions are quite all the traditional storylines are quite misogynistic. I remember going to see Verdes Rigoletta the Opera House a couple of years ago and just feeling so disgusted by the character of the Duke. Who's this womanizing, misogynist, you know, his common refrain actually one of the most popular arias that everybody knows and loves. He's sort of
chanting women are fickle. And I remember going home, I had the program book in my hand, and a couple of people who had also been at the opera noticed it and said.
How's about the duke?
You know, he hates women. So there's a lot of artworks that I think would fall into this category.
And for you, did that spoil your enjoyment of Verde's beautiful music.
No, I mean, I still loved the music, but I would definitely say the character of the Duke rubbed me the wrong way part of the part.
Yeah, And is it fair to consider the duke as a you know, as a woman in twenty twenty five, you know, looking with your empowered feminist kind of mindset, or do you need to think about him as you would have when you were observing that art in the era when it was created.
It's definitely a creature of its time. But there have been some opera directors that have chosen to update these storylines for these reasons because they don't feel as contemporary and we shouldn't be, you know, celebrating art that degrades women.
Yeah, what do you think? Can we cancel art? Should we cancel art or artists if they've done something terrible?
I personally am anti cancelation, but I'm definitely pro honest conversations, because these conversations are important, whether you're talking about art or life, and by canceling something, maybe you lose that avenue for having these important conversations. Maybe this is holding the perpetrator or alleged perpetrator of such acts accountable because we're not forgetting what they've done.
Bridget Cormack is Deputy editor of Review in the Weekend Australian. It's the home of all the best journalism about the arts, culture and entertainment. You can check it out anytime at the Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us on the front. Our team is Jasper Leik, Kristen amiot Let, Sammerglue, Tiffany Dimack, Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs and me Claire Harvey.