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[title]Broadway’s MJ paints Michael Jackson’s life in broad strokes while delivering the biggest hits of his career. Along the way, the hit show explores the many influences that contributed to Jackson’s signature style and his groundbreaking innovations in music, dance and performance—an artistic legacy that has shaped generations of performers, from Soul Train to MTV to TikTok, and sparked dance trends that are cemented into our cultural imaginations. Elijah Rhea Johnson, who has been playing the King of Pop since last April, sums it up simply: “Michael is the king of dance.”
In his Broadway debut, Johnson delivers a virtuosic performance as the adult Michael—two other performers play younger versions of the star—by channeling the pop icon’s seamless marriage of scintillating vocals and electrifying moves. His nuanced portrayal reproduces Jackson’s idiosyncratic mannerisms and speech inflections but transcends impersonation to give shape and dimension to the star’s human complexities.
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Johnson credits Jackson as the reason he began performing as a child in Detroit. When Johnson’s father noticed young Elijah admiring Chris Brown’s dance moves, he pointed his son to YouTube videos of Michael Jackson. This nudge opened up a whole world of appreciation for dance lineage. “You gotta learn the roots of it all,” Johnson tells Time Out New York. “James Brown, Nicholas Brothers—they really blew my mind. But I really gravitated towards Michael. It was magnetic.” This discovery proved formative for him as a dancer: “Doing the moonwalk and gliding were the first things I learned when I was 8 or 9 years old. So the bedrock of how I know how to move is Michael. It’s the entire blueprint of how I perform. Michael is in the bones for me.”
So the bedrock of how I know how to move is Michael. It’s the entire blueprint of how I perform. Michael is in the bones for me.
As Johnson learned, and as MJ demonstrates, a Michael Jackson blueprint is traced on the page of broader dance history. This understanding runs through MJ, even making its way into the design of the show’s front scrim, which includes hand-scribbled notes on the astonishing array of artists whom Jackson considered in his lifelong quest to “study the greats and become greater.” Childhood memory sequences in the musical’s first act nod to the influence of James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Isley Brothers on the Jackson 5. Young Michael rose to stardom as he riffed on the footwork, isolations and polyrhythms of artists whose bodies acted as instruments. Their precise glides, kicks and spins became ingredients for his first global dance craze: the Robot.
At the start of MJ’s second act, ensemble members portray Fred Astaire, Bob Fosse and the Nicholas Brothers as Johnson dances alongside them in Jackson-inflected renditions of their stylistic vocabularies. It’s a thrilling sequence that Johnson credits with deepening his engagement with Jackson’s work. “No matter what skill set you come from, this show stretches you,” he says. “You have to release your ego, put your head down and really learn—to take your time and absorb what the show requires of you. Because Michael was a student: He studied so many different styles, from jazz to modern to ballet, across the gamut to street dance and popping. He worked.”
Johnson has quite literally grown up in MJ. His involvement with the show stretches back to 2018, when he helped develop the role of the teenage Middle Michael in the pre-Broadway workshop process. Johnson credits the show’s creative team, then and now, for cultivating balanced levels of trust and rigor to bring the show to life and do justice to Jackson’s artistry. “Lynn Nottage did an amazing job of writing the script and piecing the story together,” he says. “[Choreographer and director] Chris Wheeldon and I worked a lot on where Michael’s frustrations and joys come from. And [movement Directors] Rich and Tone Talauega are the Bible when it comes to Michael and his movement, his intention and inflection. You listen and you learn and you let them teach.”
You have to release your ego, put your head down and really learn.
What does it take to become MJ? After nearly 400 performances of this demanding role, Johnson feels “1000% settled” into it. His level of commitment mirrors Jackson’s own, though Johnson admits that eight shows a week is “not for the faint of heart.” (“Michael wouldn’t do this schedule!” he adds.) Staying in peak health is key. “All the MJs work out twice a week with a trainer who’s also a Broadway dancer who helps us maintain and keep strong,” Johnson says. “And Rich and Tone get everybody into tip-top shape and make sure that Michael’s movement falls the way it’s supposed to on their body. They customize it so it’s not one singular thing, but the best it can be for everybody.”
Despite the intensity of the show and his grueling performance schedule, Johnson continues to find the ease and joy to keep things fresh. “Funny enough, the easiest part is gliding and moonwalking,” he says. “Those are the first dance moves I learned. In a way, Michael’s style of dance is in my back pocket. There are small moments where you have to improv in the style of Michael, and for me that’s second nature. If it’s a spin or a head nod or a kick or a look, or if you’re flicking open your jacket—I really get into a zone.” And Johnson keeps his own origins as a performer in mind to stay inspired. “I was just a kid in Detroit moonwalking with my dad in my kitchen, and now I’m the one doing this stuff on Broadway,” he says. “A lot of people bring their kids, and the show is their real introduction to Michael—kids around 8, like when I first started, are getting introduced, and I’m a part of that. That’s kind of insane to me. It’s like little me out there.”
See Johnson onstage at MJ at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre. Visit newyork.mjthemusical.com for the full schedule.