‘The details are what makes the man’: MJ the Musical hits Edmonton stages

A look at some of the costumes featured in "MJ the Musical." (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

An award-winning musical centred around Michael Jackson has arrived to Edmonton stages.

MJ the Musical offers a theatrical look inside the making of the late, great King of Pop’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour. The show has won four Tony awards and sold out Broadway stages in cities across North America.

This year, MJ the Musical is playing at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium from Nov. 11 to Nov. 16. Lead performer Jordan Markus, from New Orleans, La., has been in musical theatre since high school.

“I got bit by the music bug when I was around seven or eight years old, and Michael was a huge part of that,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. “I mean, who didn’t have a Michael phase growing up? It’s a rite of passage.”

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Jumping into the role, he said, felt like being “under a microscope” sometimes.

“There are so many little details that you don’t catch through videos or through live performances on tape that you see … and being a perfectionist, as Michael was, the details are what makes the man.”

The high-energy performances he tries to emulate, he added, call for a lot of stamina and conditioning.

“I’m here at the theatre, I want to say, two-and-a-half to three hours before the show even starts. And that’s just to warm up my body, warm up my voice,” he said.

“I don’t take this job lightly at all. I can go on and on about what Michael means to me. He’s like my musical hero, the biggest inspiration there is, and arguably the biggest artist there ever was. So to be able to play him every night is no small feat, but it’s also the most fun I’ve ever had on stage.”

Tickets to MJ the Musical range from $48 to $179 and can be purchased online. The show features some of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits and costumes meant to emulate some of the star’s most iconic looks.

The performance will also moonwalk its way to Calgary’s Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch