U-M alum thrilled to be portraying musical icons in Michael Jackson musical
Josh A. Dawson is no stranger to Detroit's Fisher Theatre.
Coming in this week with "MJ The Musical," a jukebox production about the late Michael Jackson," will mark the University of Michigan alumnus' fourth time on that stage after two previous stops with "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" and one as part of "Hamilton."
"The Detroit area's been home since I went to college there," says Dawson, 35, who portrays Jackson's older brother, Tito, as well as producer Quincy Jones in "MJ."
And he plans to make the most of this particular return in a very maize and blue kind of way.
"I haven't seen a game at the Big House in a long time, so I'm taking off the first Saturday we're there," says Dawson, who will be in the house for Michigan's annual rivalry game against Michigan State University. "I'll take the whole day off and do an old-fashioned tailgate, hopefully, see some old college buddies, go see the game at night. I can't wait."
The visit also will mark the return of one of the school's more accomplished alumni, with credits on stage and screen and in the music world.
Dawson has had several homes — born in Atlanta, raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Dallas, also educated in Cincinnati and residing in New York. He was raised singing and playing instruments in church, where his father was a pastor who introduced him to R&B, funk and jazz (including Quincy Jones' work), while his mother favored singer-songwriters such as Carole King and James Taylor.
"They pooled everything they could in from an early age for singing lessons, dance lessons," recalls Dawson, who was born Toney but took his stage surname to honor his grandfather, a singer whose singing group had to turn down an offer to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show" because one of the other members was afraid to fly.
"I made a promise to my grandfather when I was really, really young that I was going to sing on TV for him," says Dawson, who's done that multiple times — including portraying Harry Belafonte in a 2017 episode of Amazon Prime's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." "That's why I took the Dawson name; I wanted to give that to him before he transitioned on. It was a way to honor my family."
Dawson first studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and then moved to New York for practical experience before returning to school at Michigan — a school he was well aware of because a beloved football player from Cedar Rapids, Adrian Arrington, had played wide receiver for the football team and appeared in two bowl games. "I'm a huge basketball fan, too, so it worked out great," Dawson says. "I got to combine my artistry with being a sports fan." But he came to the school for more than the games.
"I wanted to fill some holes in my artistry," Dawson explains. "I like to say I went back to Michigan to bring my humanity into my artistry. I was a little older and had learned some things being in New York, so this was a unique opportunity to go back to school and refocus and really assess what I needed as opposed to just coming out of high school and saying, 'Give me all the information in four years." Taking more dance classes and film acting classes, Dawson "got to recraft what I needed and gain a new sense of confidence."
In addition to "Beautiful," "Hamilton" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Dawson also starred in an Off-Broadway production of "Cyrano." He's released music, too, both on his own and as part of the band Britton & the Sting."
Dawson considers the Jackson estate-authorized "MJ" — which premiered on Broadway in 2021 and won four Tony Awards — to be "unlike any other Broadway musical I've ever been part of. It's such a wonderful celebration of this incredible artist ... and shows his humanity in a very, very unique way. I think that in 2024, to look at an artist in their humanity first ... this allows us to have some important and tough and challenging conversations with ourselves, and each other."
Among those, of course, are allegations of child abuse that continue to dog Jackson's legacy 15 years after his death at the age of 50. Unsurprisingly, that's not something Lynn Nottage's "MJ" book focuses on. For his part, Dawson says: "I try not to take a judgment of how other people are going to go into this piece and deduce whatever they're going to deduce about the past. What I can do in those three hours is honor the thing I believe connects us all which is the music, the artistry ... not for good, not for bad.
"I just try to do my job as an actor and represent the story, represent the information. How people digest it, that's on them. That's going to be a subjective experience."
What Dawson likes best, however, is the opportunity to represent Quincy Jones, who he calls a personal hero.
"I've modeled much of my artistry after Quincy Jones, who has spent time in the world and is an artist who does not believe in genres and compartmentalization or any of that," says Dawson, who also enjoys playing Tito Jackson — and eulogized him on stage after the guitar-playing Jackson 5 member died Sept. 15 at the age of 70. But it's Jones' acumen and outlook, especially on the mega-successful Jackson albums "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" that fuels Dawson for "MJ."
"There is a sort of common denominator in the experience," Dawson says, "that when you leave you are transformed, and that Michael Jackson tapped into that sort of timeless, lifeblood music. It transcends genre, transcends race and political leanings. It just makes your body move on that sort of molecular level.
"The ability to see art in waves and energy and to be able to pass that thing to the audience is one of the things I love most about this piece of theater."
"MJ The Musical" opens Wednesday, Oct. 23 and runs through Nov. 3 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. 313-872-100 or broadwayindetroit.com.
