Well I can offer you the very next best thing – Thriller LIVE.

I left Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall with adrenalin so high I’m surprised I didn’t get a speeding ticket on the way home.

Firstly, I’m not an ardent fan of the king of pop. That said, enough of what I do like was there to the extent that by the end of the evening my normally shy reserve was cast aside and I was on my feet clapping and shakin’ it with the rest of a near capacity audience.

The show kicked off with The Jackson 5 and Michael’s role was taken by 14-year-old Dominic Smith. He reached last year’s semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent and talent he most certainly has.

But rather than a single artist playing the part of Jackson, his songs are performed by several members of the cast.

Thriller LIVE takes you on a rollercoaster ride through the life of Michael Jackson and the non-stop musical numbers are too many to list. Nevertheless, favourites like Beat It, Ben, She’s Out Of My Life, Man In The Mirror and Earth Song were all there.

Finally, and talk about whipping an audience up into a frenzy, the words on the big screen keep asking: “Is there something we’ve missed?” and hundreds of voices scream back YES!. This is of course the prelude to a grand finale of Billie Jean and Thriller.

Encore after encore suggested that the cast had enjoyed their night out in Nottingham as much as the audience.

If you did miss out this time, Thriller LIVE is coming to Sheffield City Hall on 23rd and 24th May. Get a ticket and I promise you a night you’ll long remember.

It's not a story, it's just Michael's hit singles on stage. It’s billed as ‘a song and dance performance’, and it's very much a spectacle of singers and dancers.

As a result, no-one is faced with the challenge of playing Jackson himself.

The production company made it very clear from the very beginning that they couldn't get anybody to play or imitate Michael because they don't think there's anybody that could really do that, and it would become like a parody.

But they have several different singers, with children from the age of eight singing the early stuff.

And a range of different singers interpreting his music, but nobody's actually playing Michael Jackson.

by Mel Bradley