Thriller Live!

Event: Thriller Live!
Venue: Grand Theater at Marina Bay Sands
Run: 3rd May – 15th May 2011

Tribute to the King of Pop

Just a few quick thoughts on this:

Some of you might know that I am a huge MJ fan, and have been one ever since my classmate passed me a VHS of “Moonwalker” in school one fine day many years ago.

If you’re an MJ fan as well, there is absolutely no reason why you would not enjoy “Thriller Live!”, unless you are expecting the King of Pop himself to come back from the dead and take to the Grand Theater stage.

One has to note, first and foremost, that this is not a musical in any sense of the word.

It’s not “Mamma Mia!”, and neither is it “We Will Rock You”.

There is no storyline to speak of, just pure unadulterated song and dance.

It’s a tribute concert, plain and simple.

“Thriller Live!” takes you on a chronological journey spanning over four decades to relive the glorious music of Michael Jackson, from his early days with the Jackson 5, all the way to the “Dangerous” era.

If you’re looking for a good night out to dance to MJ’s greatest hits, then this is the place to go.

I was highly impressed with many of the performers, but especially so with the child performer.

His rendition of “Music and Me” at the start (which happens to be one of my favourite MJ songs) was, I dare say, an almost pitch-perfect rendition of the actual MJ recording.

He sounded almost exactly like a young MJ himself!

The overall choreography was breathtaking, and apart from showing insane levels of enthusiasm, it was nice to see that the dancers remained as faithful as they could to MJ’s original choreography, notably in “Thriller”, “Billie Jean”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Dangerous”.

Setlist wise, I thought they pretty much covered all the essentials and more, although I would have wished for “Human Nature” to have been included as well.

That would have made the setlist absolutely perfect!

And I wished they had done a few more songs from the “Dangerous” album as well, instead of concentrating so much on “Off the Wall”.

“Dirty Diana” was a great addition to the list though.

I hadn’t listened to that song in a long time, and it was great hearing it again.

The high points of the concert, in my opinion, were the renditions of “Man in the Mirror”, “Heal the World”, “Black or White”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Thriller”.

Overall, “Thriller Live!” features great vocals, incredible dancing, and general feel-goodness as a result of being soaked in two-and-a-half hours worth of MJ music.

The only thing to point out was that the sound quality in the Grand Theater seemed sub-par.

It’s definitely nowhere as good as the sound quality that one would be accustomed to at the Esplanade Theatre.