Focus Birmingham

by Vidar Hjardeng

Anyone who enjoys the music of the late Michael Jackson will, I suspect, be delighted by the current touring production Thriller -Live. I was fortunate to see the audio described performance of what is effectively a spectacular tribute concert, on the afternoon of Saturday 2 October, during the production’s week at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.

There is really no story to the show at all and, in essence it is just an excuse to present over 2 and a half hours of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits, performed by a very energetic and talented group of singers and dancers. The live band – mostly hidden by a screen on stage – were so good that at first I thought that the music was an amplified recording of the original soundtrack.
Once again The Grand provided fellow visually impaired patrons with a touch tour an hour before the start of the show, when describer Anne Hornsby, along with the theatre’s Marketing and Access officer, Janine Graeme, took us onto the stage. We were first shown, what was effectively, a fairly minimal set consisting of 2 rows of metal steps on either side of the stage leading to a platform at the back of it. In addition to explaining the importance of the lighting, we were also taken into the wings to see, and get a feel of some of, the many glittering costumes used by the various performers.

Back in the foyer we paid our 2.00 deposit for the headsets, before taking our seats to listen to Anne’s introductory notes 15 minutes before curtain-up, these included details of characters and costumes and a reminder of the stage set – especially useful for those unable to attend the touch tour. As you may imagine the music was pretty loud throughout the afternoon and Anne had her work cut out making herself (I may say successfully) heard above the many songs ranging from Michael Jackson’s boyhood hits with his brothers in the Jackson 5, through to Bad and, of course, Thriller itself. A particular mention should be made of the 12 year old Wolverhampton school boy, MJ Mytton Sannah, who played the young Michael Jackson and who was, in my opinion, brilliant!
The next audio described show at the Grand will be the musical Oklahoma, starring Marty Webb, on the afternoon of Wednesday 20 October, and information on concessionary tickets, the touch tour and how to book headsets can be obtained from the box office on 01902 429212.