Is Lynn Nottage still on the fence regarding Michael Jackson allegations? Following her interviews in 2019 where she stated, ‘I think they were telling the truth.’, regarding Robson & Safechuck claims of abuses.
She recently did an interview for LA Times, she made few comments…
“I am a huge Michael Jackson fan,” Nottage said. “The music is the soundtrack of my life. I perfectly track Michael Jackson from ‘ABC’ to ‘Off the Wall’ to ‘Thriller’ and back. If you remove Michael Jackson’s music, you remove a portion of my childhood.”
Nottage acknowledged that the creative team felt “protective” of the musical early on, knowing full well that everyone would be “bringing all their preconceived notions to the table.”
“No one reviewed our show,” she said. “People reviewed their complicated relationship to Michael Jackson. And of course, there’s room for that, but what they forget is that we were making a show about an artist who had an indelible impact on 20th century music. And that he was a child star who was damaged in the process of trying to tell his own story through his art.”
Without invoking the loaded term “cancel culture,” Nottage’s position on other artists who have been accused of terrible things is:
“Everyone has different metrics, like ‘This one is wrong but this one is OK,’” she said. “The phrase that I lean into is ‘sustain the complexity.’ We live in a country where we’re forced to sustain the complexity every single moment of our lives. And if we’re operating purely in the binary, that’s when we get into trouble. When we decide that, for these reasons, this person’s art should be scrubbed from the public record, where do you stop and where do you begin? Do you begin with the quote-unquote ‘Founding Fathers,’ who committed genocide in order to build this country? Do you look at early rock ‘n’ roll artists who were having relationships with girls 12 and 13 years old? I have to be really circumspect about the way I approach this because I think there’s room to talk about, to interrogate, to spotlight complicated artists, without necessarily having to spotlight the complication.”
“MJ” is by far the biggest and most lucrative Broadway show Nottage has ever done. But something beyond the commercial imperative was driving her.
“One of the things that you can’t dismiss is that we all have a relationship with Michael Jackson, if you’re a certain age. And we haven’t all had the space or opportunity to process how we feel. That is why we created a piece of art, in which people, regardless of what you believe, can come in and have a journey. Whether that journey is to move deeper into your love or whether your journey is to release some of those emotions, we just wanted to create that space.”
So frankly, yes, Nottage is not taking sides, she is still on the fence and politically correct. It is surprising as Nottage is very opiniated on her social media regarding political and social issues and at MJVibe, we still cannot understand why a talented and opiniated woman like her will not look deeper into the facts proving that Michael Jackson IS an innocent man and finally be on the right side of the truth and history?
We understand she is just protected her career, but other artists and celebrities have stand clearly on Michael’s side.
It does not make sense to have someone who created a Michael Jackson project, hand-in-hand with his Estate, to not be fully and truly on the MJ’s side. Which seems to be the case of future projects of the Estate like the Thriller 40 Documentary with Nelson George who hasn’t been so kind to Michael Jackson in the past.
MJVibe has tried numerous times to interview Nottage and get her side but all attempts have so far failed.
SOURCE: LA Times
Over 60 provable lies in LN yet being so ready to accept the words of extortionists as truth.
She COULD have been convinced (of Michael’s innocence) by some of the people she has worked with to get the MJ musical off the ground (Rich + Tone were involved in the choreography), and members of his estate and family who attended some of the special events and functions when the musical opened. I can’t believe there would not have been a conversation about this once LN hit the headlines. I suspect she is cautious about saying anything one way or the other for fear of alienating anyone. I agree that however she feels, I would like her to speak up about it. With respect to Nelson George, who, apart from some of the things he has said in the past on social media, has appeared in praise of MJ in Bad25 for example, and has written 2 books about him. I’m hoping that his involvement with the Thriller documentary has brought him into contact with plenty of folks who knew and worked with Michael who could convince him of MJ’s innocence. We might feel that anyone who has ever said anything accusatory about Michael would never be given such a responsible job, but if in the process they come to appreciate the truth rather than the false allegations, I am happy to welcome them into the fold. I’d rather that than them be forever shunned as a ‘guilter’ when they could be an ally instead. I don’t expect everyone to agree, and that’s fine by me. I’d just prefer we win talented people over rather than alienating them for their errors of judgement (but I would very much like them to APOLOGISE to Michael’s memory and his family and fans for these error!)
[…] is going on with John Branca’s new social media presence?• Lynn Nottage still on the fence regarding Michael Jackson.• Charlie Thomson’s review of the Broadway show.• Charlie […]