[London]

When push came to shove, it turned out that fading pop superstar Michael Jackson simply couldn’t stomach the idea of competing with Forbidden Broadway.

Jackson had been in rehearsals for a series of comeback concerts in and around London later this summer.

However, another entertainment juggernaut, the Tony-Award-Winning theatrical spoof Forbidden Broadway, is also about to open in London.

Sources close to Jackson’s paedophilia defense attorneys confirmed early Friday that the idea of competing with the the other show simply left him petrified.

“Thriller” may have sold 26 million copies, ” Jackson reportedly said, during a recent conversation he had while wearing a NASA space suit while playing on a seesaw, “But Forbidden Broadway has been running all over the world since 1981. You can’t deny its power.”

Evidently, during recent weeks, Jackson had been missing rehearsals, and would often be found underneath his kitchen table, rocking, and softly singing the lyrics to “Liza One-Note, ” Forbidden Broadway‘s famous parody of Jackson’s friend Liza Minelli.

“In the end, it was just too much for him, ” Jackson’s talent-free informercial diva sister La Toya confirmed to investigators. “Yesterday he said to me, ‘Have you SEEN Alessandrini’s version of Les Miserables?! I’m just one man! I shouldn’t have to go up against that!'”

As to whether the end came through actual suicide or simple collapse, that is for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office and the seven TMZ paparazzi reporters assigned to the case to decide.

Forbidden Broadway‘s creator, Gerard Alessandrini, and the London production’s director, Phil George, could not be reached for comment.