NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - A biographical Michael Jackson musical began previews on Broadway this week with a big budget, a huge fan base and a looming question: How would the show grapple with allegations that the pop singer molested children?

The answer: It does not. The musical, for which Jackson's estate is one of the lead producers, is set in 1992, the year before the singer was first publicly accused of abuse.

The show, titled MJ, depicts Jackson at the top of his game - the King of Pop, with astonishing gifts as a singer and dancer - but also suggests that he was facing financial woes (mortgaging Neverland), was overly reliant on painkillers (he was prescribed Demerol after he was burned while filming a Pepsi advertisement), had considerable emotional baggage from his upbringing (his father is shown hitting him) and was besieged by reporters fixated on everything but his artistry (remember Bubbles, his pet chimpanzee?).

The show, with a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and direction by acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, has a long preview period ahead. It is not scheduled to open until Feb 1 and the creative team can continue to revise and refine the show until then.

But Monday night's (Dec 6) sold-out first preview offered a glimpse of the show's structure and indicated that the team has opted to stick to its initial plan, hatched years ago, to focus on Jackson's genius and showcase his hit-rich song catalogue.

The musical takes place over two days inside a Los Angeles rehearsal studio, where a driven Jackson is in the final stages of rehearsing for his Dangerous World Tour.

The show, capitalised for up to US$22.5 million (S$30.7 million), offers context for Jackson's creative choices through flashbacks to earlier chapters of his career, most of them prompted by questions from a documentary film-maker who says she wants to observe his process, but turns out to be more interested in signs of trouble.

The musical was announced in the spring of 2018, with a projected arrival on Broadway in 2020. But seven months later, a documentary called Leaving Neverland premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, bringing renewed attention to allegations, denied by Jackson when he was alive and by his estate since his death, that he had sexually abused children.

Shortly after the documentary was first aired, the production cancelled a planned pre-Broadway run in Chicago - citing labour woes - and later, the musical's name was changed, from a potentially problematic Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough to the simpler MJ.

When the Chicago run was scrapped, the producing team, led by Lia Vollack, announced a plan to take it to Broadway in the summer of 2020, but then the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway. So the show is just getting under way now.

Nottage said she aspired to craft "a musical that everyone can come to, regardless of how they feel about Michael Jackson".

"I see the artwork that we're making as a way to more deeply understand Michael Jackson and process feelings," she said, "and ultimately, that's what theatre can do."

On Tuesday, asked about the show's narrative choices, Mr Rick Miramontez, a spokesman for the musical, noted that Jackson remains "a global cultural icon" and said: "The producers hope the work, performance and storytelling of the show's talented Broadway creators, who have collaborated on this production since 2016, will make a valuable contribution to the continuing examination of the artistry, creativity and music of one of the most controversial and consequential artists of the modern era."

The musical, which features a whopping 37 songs (some performed in their entirety and others as excerpts), has one reference to concerns about Jackson's closeness to children, when one of the singer's managers asks another employee: "Who the hell is this family he wants to bring on tour?"

The packed house - in the Neil Simon Theatre, which seats 1,445 people - was rapturous, with audience members leaping to their feet after Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' and Thriller, and loudly cheering for familiar songs as well as costume elements.

Some ticket holders were dressed in outfits made famous by Jackson or in Jackson concert T-shirts.

Mr Miramontez said the attendees came from as far as Hawaii, Croatia and parts of Asia to see the show.

"I've loved Michael Jackson since I was a little girl. His music has always been so inspirational," said Ms Jerrell Sablan, a 38-year-old from Jersey City, New Jersey, who wore a shirt dress she had fashioned out of a 4XL men's T-shirt featuring images of Jackson at various stages of his career.

Her husband, Will Griffith, 43, was in a full-body candy-apple-red Thriller costume.

What about Jackson's tarnished reputation? "I mean, it's not great," Mr Griffith said. "But I can separate his music from the allegations."