Thriller Live

It needs to be said from the outset that this celebration of Michael Jackson's music doesn't know whether it is what co-producer Adrian Grant terms a ­"jukebox show", a tribute or a superior form of karaoke. It's a mishmash, but the sort that rumbles along happily. Thriller Live has been at the Lyric since January 2009, but last week, in a tip of the hat to Jackson's ­memory, it was relaunched with a new ­opening, several new songs and "extra ­choreography". Only those who've seen it before will be able to judge whether the embellishment makes much ­difference; to a newbie, it feels ­seamless, extra choreography and all. The revamped opening, in which ­dancers robotically moonwalk to Gone Too Soon, is ­laudably restrained, ­bearing in mind the ­sentimental depths that could have been plumbed. There's a meaty musical begging to be written about Jackson's life, but Grant is a fan and keeps the focus on the music. Save for brief ­segments of narration in the first half, and a dreary audience-­participation moment when we're divided into groups and made to sing Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), the entire two hours and 40 minutes is comprised of Jackson/Jackson 5 hits, performed by an array of capable ­soloists. None looks or sounds much like Jacko, but that's a ­technicality; Thriller Live takes the view that if you want to sing the King of Pop's brilliant tunes, it don't ­matter if you're black or white – or male or female, given that many of the big ­numbers are delivered by the 2005 X Factor finalist Maria Lawson. Jackson defied racial and ­gender ­categorisation and would ­have approved of the cast's ­diversity, but the constant ­rotation of lead ­vocalists comes to smell like an X Factor Jacko ­tribute. It's a scrum, and a series of big dance numbers in the second half add to the busy feeling, but two people stand out: 14-year-old Kieran Alleyne, who ­performs early hits such as I Want You Back and ABC with a twinkle in his voice, and Ricko Baird, a ­Californian who knew Jackson, which makes him the indisputable top dog of the mainly ­English cast. The show is a bit too overwhelmed by ­Jackson's achievement – the ­description of the Jackson 5 as "the world's first teen sensations" should irk the ­surviving Beatles, for instance – and ends in the mid-1990s, heavy-handedly tracing his evolution into self-styled healer of the world, with screens ­showing the words "conflict", ­"hunger" and "racism". It's a small price to pay, though, for a show that ­otherwise flags up his greatness as a singer and songwriter.