Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is taking on the King of Pop for her next gig. The New York Times confirms the “Sweat” writer will pen the book for a Broadway musical about Michael Jackson. Developed by Jackson’s estate, the production is eyeing a 2020 opening.
Few details about the musical have been disclosed, but it is expected to trace Jackson’s life and career. No word on whether the project will address the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson — since his estate is involved, it seems unlikely.
Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon (“An American in Paris”) will direct and choreograph.
Jackson made music for most of his life. As a child, he performed with his siblings in Motown group the Jackson 5. He went on to establish a legendary solo career, winning 13 Grammy Awards and releasing dozens of hit songs, such as “Bille Jean,” “Thriller,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” and “Man in the Mirror.” Jackson died in 2009 at the age of 50.
Nottage is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. She won in 2017 for her Broadway debut, “Sweat,” a play about factory workers facing layoffs in Reading, Pennsylvania, and in 2009 for “Ruined,” which focuses on “ruined” women — rape survivors and sex workers — in civil war-torn Congo. Her latest play, “Mlima’s Tale,” recently finished a run Off Broadway. It is told from the perspective of the titular elephant, who is caught in the black market for ivory.
Nottage’s other plays include “Crumbs from the Table of Joy,” “Fabulation,” “Intimate Apparel,” and “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.” She also produces and writes for “She’s Gotta Have It,” Spike Lee’s Netflix series.
“I remember having these bitch sessions with other women writers and other writers of color about how we’re stuck in developmental hell and reading hell, and then once we get out and we finally are onstage, we are relegated to the second stages, that we can’t get to the main stages,” Nottage revealed in 2017. “And I think to a certain extent, we’re still struggling with getting to those big stages, Off Broadway and Broadway. … Because you look at the demographics of America: Why doesn’t the Broadway stage reflect those demographics?”
