MUSIC OF MICHAEL JACKSON This is almost too weird to be true, and if it didn’t cost what it does I’d recommend going for the spectacle alone. As what it is — a sort of Dollywood-level pop-martyr worship — it succeeds, though a wholesale focus on sentimentality is a disservice to Jackson’s blistering personal insights (“Man in the Mirror”) and outright wounded lash-outs (“Leave Me Alone”). The legendary, late rock critic Lester Bangs warned against exactly this kind of errant idolatry in his John Lennon obit — and we see the inhuman pedestal Lennon has been forced to stand upon in subsequent decades. So — seriously — go to this to see history in the making, as the human complexity and imperfections of this late, talented musician are steamrolled into a homogenous rock idol persona. Hell, give it a few years and we’ll get one of these for Whitney Houston. Gotta mine these celebrity deaths while they’re still ripe. With the Charlotte Symphony. (Corbie Hill)
Price: $31.50-$71.45