MJ The Michael Jackson Musical will play a limited season at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands from August 2027, bringing the Tony Award-winning production to a city Michael Jackson visited during his 1993 Dangerous World Tour.
by Paul Cashmere
MJ The Michael Jackson Musical will open in Singapore in August 2027 for a limited season at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands, marking the production’s next international engagement following seasons on Broadway, London’s West End, in Hamburg and touring productions in the United States and Australia.
The Singapore season was announced by original Broadway producers Lia Vollack and John Branca, together with Michael Cassel and Base Entertainment Asia.
The Singapore presentation also carries a direct connection to Michael Jackson’s history in the city. Jackson performed two sold-out concerts in Singapore during the Dangerous World Tour in 1993, the tour that provides the central setting for MJ The Michael Jackson Musical.
Written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, MJ The Michael Jackson Musical is set in 1992 as Jackson prepares the Dangerous World Tour. Rather than presenting a conventional biography, the musical uses the rehearsals for the tour as its framework, examining Jackson’s creative process and the people around him as he developed one of the most ambitious concert productions of its era.
The narrative is presented through the perspective of an MTV journalist given access to the rehearsal process. That device allows the production to move between the Dangerous preparations and earlier periods of Jackson’s life and career.
More than 25 Jackson songs feature in the musical, including Beat It, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Man in the Mirror and Thriller. The score also reaches into Jackson’s catalogue beyond the most familiar singles, with material including Tabloid Junkie, Price of Fame, 2Bad, Stranger in Moscow and You Can’t Win.
Director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon OBE said the production was intended to examine Jackson’s relationship between music and movement while focusing on the creative work behind the Dangerous tour. Read the Noise11 review here
“Michael Jackson transformed the relationship between music and movement in a way few artists ever have,” Wheeldon said. “With MJ, we wanted to honour not only the songs audiences know and love, but also the artistry, innovation and creative spirit behind them.”
MJ The Michael Jackson Musical has won four Tony Awards, including Best Choreography for Wheeldon. Its London production subsequently earned Wheeldon an Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography.
The show’s creative team includes scenic designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Natasha Katz, costume designer Paul Tazewell, sound designer Gareth Owen, projection designer Peter Nigrini, hair and wig designer Charles LaPointe and make-up designer Joe Dulude II.
David Holcenberg serves as musical supervisor, with orchestrations and arrangements by Holcenberg and Tony Award winner Jason Michael Webb.
The production has now been seen by more than eight million people across its Broadway, West End, Hamburg, United States and Australian engagements. Its Australian production played Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 2025, where the staging was built around the same 1992 rehearsal period and featured more than 20 musical numbers across its two acts.
The Australian production demonstrated the extent to which the show uses Jackson’s catalogue as both performance material and narrative device. Alongside major hits, the Melbourne set included songs such as I Can’t Help It, Keep the Faith, Human Nature, She’s Out of My Life and Earth Song.
The Singapore engagement gives the musical an unusual geographical link to the period it portrays. Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour reached Singapore in 1993, with the two sold-out concerts becoming part of the city’s history with the performer.
Base Entertainment Asia CEO Chantal Prudhomme said that connection was significant when bringing the musical to Singapore.
“Michael Jackson has been part of the soundtrack of so many of our lives, and bringing MJ THE MICHAEL JACKSON MUSICAL to Singapore is a real thrill,” Prudhomme said.
Prudhomme also pointed to the generational nature of Jackson’s catalogue, noting that audiences who saw Jackson perform can approach the production through memory, while younger audiences can encounter the music and choreography through theatre.
The Singapore production is presented by Base Entertainment Asia under Prudhomme’s direction, with the musical presented by special arrangement with the Estate of Michael Jackson.
The Dangerous World Tour began in June 1992 and continued into 1993, supporting Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous. The album followed the commercial and cultural impact of Bad and included songs that remain central to MJ The Michael Jackson Musical, including Black or White, Remember the Time, In the Closet, Jam and Heal the World.
The musical concentrates on the period when Jackson was translating the recorded music into an elaborate live production. Its narrative therefore places the songs alongside rehearsals, choreography, production decisions and Jackson’s relationships with collaborators and family members.
For Singapore audiences, the 2027 season will place that story in the same region where Jackson’s touring career was once experienced first-hand. The production will also extend the international theatrical life of a show that has moved from Broadway to multiple markets while retaining the Dangerous era as its narrative foundation.
The August 2027 Singapore season is the next announced chapter for MJ The Michael Jackson Musical. Further information on performance dates and ticket sales will follow after the current waitlist period.
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