My Publicist Note Book

When it comes to the relationship between his late father and mother, Marvin Gaye III has long felt the world really didn't know what was going on. That's why the adopted son of Motown's legendary Marvin Gaye and Anna Gordy Gaye wanted to tell what he calls the "100 percent true" story of the couple on stage in "Pride & Joy: The Marvin Gaye Musical" — which opened in Washington, D.C., earlier this month and comes to Motown this week at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre. Marvin Gaye with his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye, and their son in an undated photo.  "I always wanted to change the tide on the perception of their relationship," the Detroit-born Gaye says by phone. "My dad and mom loved very deeply and intensely, but at the same time, they were two individuals that were headstrong in their own ways. My mom was a real go-getter and businesswoman, and my dad was a real artist. And then when you mix that with outside forces l...

It was only a matter of time before we’d see “Michael Jackson: The Musical.”  Michael Jackson is Broadway-bound. The pop singer’s  estate , along with Columbia Live Stage, said Tuesday that it had agreed to develop a stage musical about his life, aiming for Broadway in 2020. The musical, reflecting Jackson’s stature, features an unusually acclaimed creative team. The book is to be written by Lynn Nottage, a playwright who has won two Pulitzers, for “Ruined” and “Sweat.” And the show is to be directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, the artistic associate of the Royal Ballet in London, who won a Tony Award for “An American in Paris.” Jackson has been the subject of many previous entertainment ventures, including a staged concert, “Thriller Live” that has been running for nearly a decade in London.  The estate’s executors have collaborated with several projects, including “Michael Jackson ONE,” a Cirque du Soleil show running for the l...