Thriller Live at the Liverpool Empire Review
Thriller Live
Liverpool Empire
4-8 March 2014
Reviewed by Sue Trish
We arrived at the Liverpool Empire to pick up our tickets for Thriller Live and were assisted by very friendly and helpful staff.
We found our seats, which were brilliant, and right on time the show began.
I was unsure what to expect. Was it a life story? A Thriller story? A celebration of a legend? Well actually there was real no story to speak of. It was a series of songs and dances with some narration about the success of the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson himself thrown in.
The show was slow getting off the mark, the audience didn’t appear to be engaged and the atmosphere was poor. There was an awkward and forced episode of audience participation that went on too long and the lack of storyline seemed to leave many people confused.
There were more than a dozen lead vocalists, yet the one true MJ look and sound alike did not sing enough or have a prominent place on the stage. It was also disappointing that there was no youngster playing Michael in the early Jackson 5 days. In addition to this one member of the cast actually reminded me more of a heavy metal singer than a Michael Jackson one. His performances were almost cringe worthy and very out of place.
Parts of the show were actually mimed with a Michael Jackson track playing in the background – not something one would expect at a musical!
Once you got your head around the format it was easier to enjoy and take in the music of a legend. Song choices were excellent and the second half was much livelier than the first. In fairness, most of the cast could sing and dance really well in their own right and provided us, at the very least, with a glitzy concert of song and dance.
It was a reasonable show but there seemed to be something missing.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £18.90 to £33.90 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).
For more information or to book tickets click here.
