Jackson estate gives to Broadway, Vegas needy
LOS ANGELES — The Michael Jackson estate is donating $300,000 to help entertainment industry workers on Broadway, the music business and in Las Vegas who have been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The estate announced Wednesday that it will give $100,000 apiece to Broadway Cares, the food bank Three Square in Nevada and MusiCares, because all three areas have been good to the estate and to Jackson.
“This virus, this pandemic affects all of us obviously, so we wanted to start in our own communities,” John Branca, the estate’s co-executor, told The Associated Press. “This is personal for us.”
A Jackson-themed Broadway show, “MJ The Musical” is scheduled to start previews in July, though like the rest of Broadway it is currently on hold amid the coronavirus shutdown. No announcements have been made on postponing the show, and the estate and producers are taking a wait-and-see approach, Branca said.
“Michael Jackson ONE,” the long-running Jackson-based Cirque du Soleil show at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where Jackson lived late in his life, is also on hold indefinitely.