Thriller Live, Sunderland Empire

IT’S quite extraordinary – the span of time over which Michael Jackson’s music has been seeping into our collective soul. It’s also somewhat sobering to realise that had it not been for his untimely death in 2009, he would now be fast approaching his 58th birthday. But his music continues in its wide appeal and attracted all ages to the Empire.

Thriller Live is a spectacular song and dance show. It is a celebration of Jackson’s extraordinary, if at times eccentric, creative talent and his contribution to everything from Motown to disco to ground breaking pop-videos. Accompanied by Nigel Catmur’s stunning lighting and visual effects, thirty-four iconic numbers command the stage. This is high-octane stuff delivered by a talented company of musicians, singers and dancers.

Cleopatra Higgins evoked perfectly the early Motown years with I’ll be There, ABC and Don’t Blame it on the Boogie while Rory Taylor commanded the stage with the gentler strains of She’s Out of My Life and the driving rhythms of Beat It.

Taking on the mantle of Michael Jackson, and capturing every nuance of those carefully choreographed moves, was Eddy Lima donning iconic white sequinned glove for Billie Jean and accompanied by the obligatory macabre zombies for Thriller.

The dancers expended more energy than whizzes round the accelerator at CERN and accompanied everything from disco numbers to the urgent rhythms of They Don’t Care About Us.

This is an exuberant, crotch-grabbing, pelvic thrusting tribute that by the end had the Sunderland audience on its feet and jumping.

Runs until Saturday (January 30). Box Office: 0844-871-3022 or ATGtickets.com/Sunderland.

Then: York Grand Opera House, February 1-6, 0844-871-3024 atgtickets.com/york

Darlington Civic Theatre, February 29 to March 5. 01325-486555 darlingtoncivic.co.uk

Laurence Sach