Help Michael R. Jackson air some Dirty Laundry and make Good Clean Music

The Tony Awards are rapidly approaching, and while I am curious to see who takes home statues this year and am looking forward to some performances, I do have to admit that the Tonys have not been a huge source of excitement for me. Because while there are many great entries in there, I’ve been finding the more theatre I’ve been making an effort to see outside of Broadway, the more I realize that real invention, risks, and basically things that are defining the future of theatre are not represented on The Great White Way. This is not said to take anything away from this last season, but when half the nominees for best score are (yet again) plays, something seems a bit amiss.

This is all to say that one of the artists that I have been repeatedly thrilled by in the past couple of years has been Michael R. Jackson, who I’ve mentioned on this blog at least a couple of times. His characters are always complicated and unafraid of confronting uncomfortable truths, whether the audience likes it or not, in song. The narratives of his tunes are specific and sometimes gut-wrenching, and listening to his music, it’s not hard to see that he has a unique voice in the theatre landscape, particularly in musical theatre.

It is with this adoration that I am very excited about the possibility that he might be able to record an album, and this is the intention of his Kickstarter campaign: to record a double LP album. Even if it’s just a few dollars, please support this great project; there are only a few days left in the campaign, and there’s still a way to go. More information and links to donate are here. In the meantime, if you’re still on the fence, here’s a couple of videos from Michael R. Jackson’s recent Lincoln Center concert: