MJ the musical cancelled after Michael Jackson actor and two understudies fall ill

The Michael Jackson musical was cancelled twice this week after the actor playing the King of Pop and his two understudies all fell ill.

Fans were left disappointed on Tuesday and Wednesday night when MJ The Musical had to be called off.

Myles Frost, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Jackson, was struck down with illness alongside Kieran Alleyne and Kwame Kandekore, his understudies.

Jamaal Fields-Green, who is the current understudy on the North American tour version of MJ The Musical, was flown in to take their places and made his West End debut on Thursday night.

The West End musical opened at the Prince Edward Theatre last month and is running until December.

MJ has been a hit on Broadway since it opened in 2022 and has won four Tony Awards, including best choreography for Christopher Wheeldon, its British director-choreographer.

It is being taken around the world and will be performed in German in Hamburg in December and then in Sydney in February next year.

But the musical has been criticised for not addressing the child abuse allegations made against Jackson.

The writer of MJ, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage, is a lifelong Jackson fan and said she wanted to focus on his music.

The first sexual abuse allegations against Jackson surfaced in 1993. The musical ended in 1992, at the time of his Dangerous tour.

Reviewers in the US have criticised its failure to address the abuse allegations, variously calling it “sanitised”, “a monument to misconduct” and “very smooth, somewhat criminal”.

MJ is co-produced by the Michael Jackson Estate and is billed as offering “a rare look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Jackson into legendary status”.

A Michael Jackson jukebox musical, Thriller Live, has been running in the West End since 2009.