Michael Jackson's last rehearsal: 'just beaming with gladness'

Reference : http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-jackson-rehearsal27-2009jun27,0,4699249.story


Michael Jackson's last rehearsal: 'just beaming with gladness'

Onstage at Staples Center, associates say, the performer radiated joy as he prepared for his comeback tour.
By Chris Lee and Harriet Ryan 7:40 PM PDT, June 26, 2009
Michael Jackson spent his final night alive in his favorite spot on Earth: the stage.At Staples Center Wednesday night, the performer did a full run-through of his planned comeback concert. He and his company -- dancers, musicians, singers, aerial performers, choreographers and costumers -- planned to fly to England early next week for final dress rehearsals at London's O2 Arena, the site of the pop superstar's 50-night sold-out run.By lunchtime Thursday, Jackson was in cardiac arrest. But in Staples Center's spotlight, he was in high spirits and totally engaged, according to a number of his collaborators. Energetic, optimistic and focused, Jackson gave no indication of what was to come, they said. The show's director, Kenny Ortega -- a journeyman choreographer and movie director whose career highlights include "High School Musical," the "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" and "Dirty Dancing" -- began work with Jackson on the intricate staging four months ago. On Thursday, Ortega recalled Jackson as bursting with enthusiasm and personally invested in the production's most minute details.
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"There were a couple of times when Michael stood at my side and we looked at the stage together and were just beaming with gladness that we had arrived at this place," Ortega said. "And he was happy. We all felt that and shared that. We were four or five days from finishing in Los Angeles and heading to London and feeling in really good shape."Ortega said he had no knowledge of the singer taking any drugs or medication. He also denied that the slender performer had physically overextended himself by working out four hours a day, six days a week in preparation for the physically taxing concerts."He was dancing, training, working every day with our choreographer Travis [Payne]," Ortega said. "Michael has always been slight. That was his fighting weight. He was getting rest time, coming in and working with the band, guiding the singers, working on orchestrations. He was enthusiastically involved in every creative aspect of this production."Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, the concert promoter that will forfeit the more than $20 million it put into staging Jackson's comeback, was also among those at Staples Center on Wednesday. He recalled Jackson being in ebullient spirits."It was fantastic, he was so great. I got goose bumps," Phillips said. "It made me realize why I got into this business."I take great solace in the pride and confidence he exhibited during production rehearsals on Wednesday night. That is the memory I will cherish for the rest of my life," Phillips said.Ken Ehrlich, the longtime executive producer of the Grammy Awards who staged televised performances by Jackson half a dozen times, met with the performer at Staples on Wednesday to discuss a television project. "He was very warm and funny. He was having a good time," Ehrlich said.After the meeting, the singer invited Ehrlich to stay and watch him rehearse.The show was still a work in progress, with props that Ehrlich recalled as "looking pretty magical" strewn about the venue's floor. Jackson seemed committed to the work but stopped short of putting his complete energy into the run-through, he said."What I saw that night was a person who was still in the process of learning the show," Ehrlich said. "I watched Kenny Ortega walk him through some stage directions. I know [Michael's] method, and there's a certain reticence when he's not in full make-up and wardrobe to 'give it.' He would have been ready by the time he got to London."Watching the singer perform his hits showed Ehrlich Jackson's pervasive influence on a new generation of superstars: "The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I wasn't watching Justin Timberlake or Chris Brown or Usher or any of the hundreds of acts that have taken from Michael. The modern inheritors of his art. It was him."Jackson hired Ed Alonzo -- a concert magician-comedian known as "the Misfit of Magic," who also worked on Britney Spears' "Circus" tour -- to create two set-piece illusions for his London shows. One illusion set to the opening number involved an illuminated sphere that would have floated around the singer's body, flown out above the audience and then landed back in Jackson's hand before immolating in a blaze of light.Alonzo recalled that the singer arrived at Staples around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday but did not begin rehearsing until 9, complaining -- perhaps facetiously, the magician said -- of laryngitis."He looked great and had great energy. He wasn't singing at full level, but it was as beautiful as ever," Alonzo said. "He didn't even take a moment to grab a bottle of water or take a rest. He went from one number to the other. 'Let's do that again.' He wanted to look at props for the 'Thriller' number, a gigantic spider. He was dancing, singing, joking with the crew. If he was having any aches or pains, nobody knew about it that night."According to the magician, the rehearsal went past midnight. "Had I known that would be the last time he'd perform, I'd have stayed longer," said Alonzo, who left the venue around 12.Frank DiLeo, Jackson's manager, said the singer seemed upbeat and ready for the challenges of mounting a comeback that Jackson had hoped would restore his superstardom -- reinstating his cultural relevance, erasing part of his massive debt and finally allowing his three children to understand why fans worldwide herald him as the King of Pop."He just told me how happy he was and that things were working out the way he wanted," DiLeo said.

chris.lee@latimes.com
harriet.ryan@latimes.com

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