NEW YORK - The life of Michael Jackson will be coming to Broadway in a musical incorporating the King of Pop's tunes penned by a leading US playwright.

Producers of the musical announced the project on Wednesday without revealing a title and said they aimed for a premiere in 2020.

The musical, which is being co-produced by the late King of Pop's estate, will be written by Lynn Nottage, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Nottage, a professor in the theater department of Columbia University, most recently won acclaim for "Sweat," a play about a blue-collar town in Pennsylvania that sees an eruption of ethnic tensions with immigrants as industrial jobs vanish.

The play, for which Nottage traveled to Pennsylvania to do first-hand research, premiered in 2015 and was later seen as a prescient look at the people who voted in President Donald Trump.

The Jackson musical will incorporate his music and feature choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, a prominent force in ballet.

Wheeldon has written original works for the Royal Ballet in London based on Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale."

It remains to be seen how the upcoming musical will portray Jackson, who has largely been seen as a tragic figure since his 2009 death, although the involvement of his estate raises expectations that the work will focus on the positive. - AFP