Thriller (Michael Jackson) Concert

The performance started off with a bang. I was immediately immersed by the dancing, rhythmic beat and flashing lights and was dancing straight away!

5 people played the role of Michael Jackson: Angelica Allen, Dajiow, Haydon Eshun, Alex Ko, John Moabi and Stefan Sinclair. In my opinion, they all sang very similar to Michael, and their voices were incredibly soft yet powerful.

The performance was set out along Michael Jackson's life, starting with the songs he wrote with his siblings, such as 'ABC' and 'I Want You Back'.

As the singers led the audience through Michael's life, they sang songs that I am more familiar with. I especially loved the part where they asked one side of the theatre to sing "Let's scream, let's shout" and the other side to sing "shake your body down to the ground". It was great fun and everyone was having a great time.

Nearing the end of the show, they performed a groundbreaking version of Thriller, which is the song that the show is named after. It was filled with monsters crawling around the stage and then dancing in unison, and was very amusing.

In conclusion, I thought the Thriller concert was exciting, entertaining and technical. Firstly, the loud music and dancing made the concert exciting and entertaining, combined with the flashing lights and live band, which enhanced the technical side to the performance too. I thought it was very effective to interact with the audience, for example when they asked everyone to stand up and dance. This engagement with the audience makes the whole performance even more enjoyable and lively. In my workshop that I will do in the future for the leadership part of the Arts Award, I want to interact with the audience as much as possible, because here I can see how effective it is to engage the audience. Also, the fact that a live band was playing, rather than just a track, enhanced the production because it showed how much effort had gone into the preparation of the show, for example the dancers and band needed to stick in time with each other. Additionally, the venue for the Thriller concert was well chosen. The Lyric Theatre is large, but not too large. I think this is good because it means the audience do not have to keep turning their heads to look at different sides of the stage, which is one thing I do not like about larger theatres. Also, a not so large theatre meant that it always looked like the stage was being occupied, never that parts of the stage were empty. If the theatre had been larger, there may have been gaps in the stage, which creates an empty atmosphere, which can be uncomfortable.

From this event I learnt that interacting with the audience is effective and engaging, and so I will try to interact with my audience when I present my workshop. Also, I learnt that large spaces, when not filled up, do not have a nice atmosphere, because there is a sense of emptiness. Either try to use a smaller space with small audiences, or occupy the space if the room is big. This way, the audience feels as though the whole area is filled, and this creates a nice and calm atmosphere.