Man In The Mirror 28.11.2024
Invited| Review by Samantha Pearson
What a ‘Thriller’ tonight was at The Fire Station Sunderland. Man In The Mirror, A Tribute to Michael Jackson produced by Entertainers. graced the stage tonight and put on an outstanding performance paying tribute to the legacy that is the unquestionable King of Pop.
The newly formed production since September 2024 features CJ as Michael Jackson, who’s been impersonating his idol since four years of age, and performing as him around the world for the past seventeen years. The production also features an extremely talented cast of dancers and a live on stage band.
From the first song, the visual effects, lighting and dazzling choreography instantly capture the attention of the audience. The night was broken down into two hour sets with an interval, and each set was just as electric as the other. The first set consisted of remarkable costumes for both MJ and his backing dancers. As soon as CJ came on stage, it was magnificent how much his charisma and persona matched the King of Pops completely and it’s easy to understand how he is one of the greatest in the world at what he does.
The first set included the likes of ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, ‘Dirty Diana’, ‘Black or White’ and multiple other timeless classics. The backing dancing, although throughout the whole of the show, for ‘Dirty Diana’ was impeccable, setting the scene perfect and the talent on the performers was something else. Credit also needs to go to the backing band, playing flawlessly throughout and ramping up the crowd at any given moment.
The second set included a lot more of Jackson’s well known tracks, including a mix of songs from The Jackson 5, and old classics from the album ‘Off The Wall’ such as ‘Rock With You’ and ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’. Moving swiftly on to the more iconic songs such as ‘Smooth Criminal’, perfectly mastering the Jackson anti-gravity lean, much to the audiences delight. The full dance routine to Thriller was performed including a small ‘fright’ in the audience in which the dancers dressed up as ghouls before nailing every single move. Again, ‘Earth Song’ was powerful as CJ impersonated Michael completely as well as standing on a platform with the iconic wind coming up from below.
Finishing the night off, of course was ‘Man In The Mirror’ and the whole audience was back up on their feet one last time for the final encore, singing word for word and breathing in every second. For a new production of only two months, and having seen numerous Michal Jackson shows, I honestly think this is my favourite so far, and a credit goes to all involved for making it so perfect in such a short space of time. The show itself was seamless, and if it’s this good so early on, then I can only imagine where it could go!
10/10 a must see!