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Director Jamie King reveals secrets of Michael Jackson: Immortal



One-time Michael Jackson tour dancer Jamie King is the man now entrusted with writing, directing and choreographing the upcoming 5-year run of Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. The premiere is in October in Cirque du Soleil’s hometown of Montreal, and then 33 performances follow on the Strip starting Dec. 3 at Mandalay Bay.

An interview with Michael Jackson Estate co-executor John Branca was posted Monday, talks with older brother Jackie Jackson and Mandalay Bay President Chuck Bowling were posted yesterday, and it’s a wrap tomorrow with Cirque du Soleil head honcho Daniel Lamarre.

Jamie said there’s no doubt that the Immortal show will be “the biggest in the world.” He explained: “We’re embarking on a hugely massive show. About 9 months ago, Cirque asked me to devise, scheme, put together a show that would be the biggest show in the world as only Michael Jackson would do it. That has now all become the Immortal tour, and I told Guy (Laliberte, Cirque’s founder), ‘absolutely, I’d love the opportunity.

“I was chosen by Michael Jackson to be a dancer on the Dangerous Tour. So for me it has all come full circle, not only perform with and for him but now to actually immortalize Michael in a showcase. It blows my mind and keeps blowing my mind every day. In about 6 months, the show will open: Oct. 2. My heart just skipped a beat when I said 6 months, although we’ve been working on it for 9 months putting it together creatively with an amazing all-star team.

“We have acrobats , performers, dancers and musicians from everywhere around the world -- many of the musicians actually worked with Michael on previous tours. It’s an all-star A-Team of people who have worked with Michael, been around Michael, experienced Michael. We have found the people that Michael would love.

“Over the next 6 months, we’ll be putting the show together in Montreal. I will move there from Los Angeles to Montreal and begin the production phase so the show really comes to life. That’s all the props, costumes and full music design. For me, it’s like a kid in a candy store. I may be the director and writer of the show, but I’m not doing it alone. Michael is my co-director the whole way, as if he’s kind of watching and leading me and guiding me in what story to tell.

“I was taken on a trip to Neverland with Cirque, and it really blew my mind. In that moment being at Neverland and really seeing this kind of place that Michael called home and really didn’t share with the rest of the world, we decided to make our environment for the Michael Jackson: Immortal Tour and show set in Neverland. How cool is that right? Now when you go to the show, you’ll actually be able to experience Neverland. It will come to life before your eyes in the arena. That’s the setting, that’s the environment, and that’s what we’re making happen as rehearsals begin in three weeks.

“Even though Michael is not there physically, his spirit will be there completely in the show, with his essence and his music. His lyrical content of those songs become our narrator for the show. In the entire show, you are hearing Michael lead us on this journey through Neverland understanding the mystery, the magic, the innocence of Neverland, but also of him, too. We get to uncover, discover and sometimes rediscover everything we knew about Michael and wanted to know about Michael.

“There’s lots of surprises -- I didn’t know Michael was a poet. I knew he was a great songwriter. But in researching and learning everything I could about Michael in this short time, I did learn that he was a great poet, also a great artist. He made great drawings throughout his life. So the show will reflect that he was a great artist, a great performer, a great showman, a great human being. When he was my boss, he treated us dancers like gold and wanted us to be the best. Now I get to show Michael’s talents and humanity in Cirque’s Immortal Tour.”

Jamie continued during the lengthy, one-on-one chat: “We had castings in New York, Los Angeles, Canada and video auditions from around the world. We have the full cast and crew in place. The stages are already being built.” He’s directed tours for Madonna, Ricky Martin and Britney Spears and in fact sends Britney’s new Femme Fatale Tour off on the road next month


Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson
“I don’t know how many trucks will go out for Immortal, but it will be more than the 24 that went out for Madonna and Britney. They’ve taken the most so far. I haven’t had to concentrate on the traveling logistics. I was just told to build the best show that could be built, and they’ll figure out a way to make it work for the road and the arenas.”

After some persuading, Jamie revealed where the show begins and ends in Michael’s life. “To sum it up, this is the Michael Jackson show. It’s everything Michael in the way of Thriller and Off the Wall. Michael the icon. There are nods back to the Jackson Five, his beginnings, when he was with his brothers and his family. Those nods will be there, but this is really based on Michael’s catalog and less about the Jackson Five catalog. Michael’s children and his family have all been really supportive to this point.

“It will be a 90-minute spectacular with 30 songs. The only way I can do that is by mashing up certain songs, remixing certain songs with others so you feel like you’re getting the Michael song. … I’m planning to use some video footage from This Is It that we didn’t get to see all the way in the theatrical concert film. I have access to that, and I’ve kind of re-jigged it. Also, there’s some choreography that wasn’t really seen realized in This Is It, and I’m going to use that in the show, as well. But let’s be clear: There are no This Is It tour dancers and no musicians. We have members of The Bad Tour and The Victory Tour, the older Michael Jackson shows.

“It will come off looking and feeling as if it’s Michael on tour. We’ll have that element for sure -- that’s what my cache is -- I put on rock spectacles, pop spectacles, and Michael was the best at that, so that element is 100 percent there. What’s cool is now we add in the theatricality that Cirque du Soleil provides. So it’s really going to be a hybrid that no one’s really seen before. It’s like rock meets Cirque.

“The only thing I can tell you until you see it for yourself is that we find our way transported into Neverland as part of the opening. The arena becomes Neverland, so the audience gets transported into this world of Neverland. In my heart, I know what needs to be told is that purity, that humanity of Michael Jackson, that vulnerable side that a lot of people really didn’t get to see, that childlike heart that was so beautiful and so pure. That’s what I really want the audience to feel and leave with.

“We all know what the showmanship of him, what that looks like, the artistry, the great performer … and we’ll get all that for sure. But his heart and his purity and his humanity are definitely something I’m allowed to touch on. We want it to look like a great collaboration of the Cirque world and the Michael Jackson rock and roll world.

“This is a really big show because there are so many entities. It’s bigger than big, if you know what I mean. It’ll be the biggest show in the world.”

Robin Leach
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Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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