LondonTheatre1's Lee Cogger hails Ben Bowman as the closest Michael Jackson live

Michael Starring Ben, a show built around Ben Bowman's performance of Michael Jackson's music, played the London Palladium on 6 April 2019. Reviewing the evening for LondonTheatre1, critic Lee Cogger wrote one of the most enthusiastic notices the live show has received, and it remains a useful snapshot of how the production was judged in the West End. Looking back at the piece now, what stands out is how little of it is hedged.

Cogger's first point of focus was the physical resemblance. He noted that Bowman bears a close likeness to Jackson, and treated that not as a gimmick but as a foundation for the rest of the performance. The likeness, in his account, gave the audience an immediate reference point, so attention could move quickly from appearance to what the performer was actually doing on stage.

That performance was where the review became most specific. Cogger singled out the dancing, and in particular Bowman's ability to dance while singing live without sounding out of breath. For a show whose central challenge is recreating some of the most physically demanding work in pop, that distinction carried real weight in the critic's assessment.

Cogger went further than praise for a single performer. He suggested the show was probably the closest audiences can now get to seeing Michael Jackson perform, a claim that places the production in a category of its own rather than simply grading it as a good tribute. It is a strong position to take, and the review leaned into it without qualification in most places.

The one reservation was narrow. Cogger noted that the dancers briefly lost time with one another at points in the show. He did not frame this as a problem that undermined the evening, and it sits as the only note of caution in an otherwise warm account.

Read today, the review offers a clear picture of what the act was built to do live: combine a close physical likeness with demanding choreography and vocals delivered in real time. Whatever the wider debate about tribute shows, this piece shows how one critic judged the live experience on those terms, and why his verdict on Bowman's dancing and singing stood out.