For Jackson at Garden, a Moonwalking Rehab

He twirled. He moonwalked. He chirped a “Hoo Hoo” or two.

He escorted Elizabeth Taylor to her seat. He reunited with his brothers. And he heard his audience impatiently chant his name while Marlon Brando tried to lecture them about children being hacked up by machetes.

He said, “I love you,” a zillion times.

With that mix of song and dance, pathos and the bizarre, Michael Jackson was back on a U.S. stage.

In a 3 1/2-hour concert Friday night at Madison Square Garden, the self-styled “King of Pop” brought old friends and a who’s who of a new generation of performers before an audience of trusty fans who paid from $45 to $2,500 to once more hear such signature hits as “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.”

Jackson, 43, has been orchestrating his long-awaited reentry onto the pop scene for months, spending millions recording a new album, “Invincible,” and on image rehabilitation.

Jackson was looking for redemption in both senses, two decades after he helped give birth to the MTV generation with his pioneering videos and the blockbuster “Thriller” album made him the most successful pop star in the world.

But his “King of Pop” title became an embarrassing target of ridicule in subsequent years amid declining album sales, his increasingly eccentric behavior and tabloid-feeding scandals.

“I think this performance is crucial for him. It’s his opportunity to prove he can still perform at a high level. This is the chance,” said whiz-kid record producer Rodney Jerkins, who helped Jackson assemble his new album.

Though Jackson may not openly acknowledge his need for redemption, or a comeback, “he hears people saying it,” noted Jerkins, 24. “He has to know it. He knows that’s what people think.”

Some naysayers have been contending for years that the negatives in his life are too formidable for Jackson to re-scale the heights of pop. But the singer and his record company, Epic, are hoping that an appealing album will prove them wrong. The new collection, his first in six years, is due in stores Oct. 30.

Jackson’s reemergence campaign picked up intensity last week, with the radio release of “You Rock My World,” an upbeat, funk-driven track from the album, and the campaign continued with a brief appearance with the pop group ‘N Sync during Thursday night’s MTV Video Music Awards here.

But Friday’s affair at the Garden was the most dramatic step in the campaign--his first formal U.S. concert performance in more than a decade. The concert, “Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration,” was billed as marking his three decades as a solo artist and, along with another Monday night performance, will be boiled down into a two-hour prime-time TV special in November on CBS.

Performing their own songs--or versions of the ones Jackson made famous--were a parade of older performers such as Liza Minnelli and Ray Charles, and ones who top the charts today, including ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, Shaggy and Monica.

Jackson also performed half a dozen songs with his brothers, whom he began with in show business as the Jackson 5.

Then his brothers left and he did renditions of some of his hits dating back to his “Thriller” days, with many in the audience replicating the dance moves that were broadcast over and over in his groundbreaking videos.

With occasional help from performers such as Spears and Slash, the former Guns N’ Roses guitarist, he performed “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” along with 1991’s “Black or White” and “You Rock My World,” the single from the new album.

Although a few hundred seats still were available hours before the show began, the Garden appeared full by show time, except for areas behind the stage, and the diverse crowd--in bluejeans and bare midriffs--swayed and cheered on cue.

One common complaint: ticket prices.

“I love the guy, but nobody’s worth that,” said Steve Beilman, 47, of Manhattan, who sat with his three daughters and his wife in $500 seats. “I think it’s ridiculous.”

Still, he stood and danced with his daughters once the music began.

Unlike a normal live concert, the audience also had to endure substantial waits between the various acts in the made-for-TV event. Though they cheered the old clips of Jackson that often were shown on video screens during those times, there were countless testimonials offered as well, from celebrities such as Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn, extolling Jackson’s humanitarianism or for “one of the most extraordinary careers in entertainment history.”

Jackson spent the first portion of the concert seated in the audience next to two other former child stars who often found real life a trial: the frosted-haired Taylor, dressed in a black dress with a violet-colored boa around her neck; and Macaulay Culkin, of “Home Alone” fame.

Jackson sat between them for the evening’s most bizarre episode, when Brando took the stage in suit, tie and sunglasses, seated on a black love seat. The film legend first looked at his watch for a minute, then launched into a lecture about the “hundreds if not thousands of children” likely killed during that minute, subject to various atrocities around the world. As Brando continued, often in detail, members of the audience began booing, or chanting, “Michael! Michael! Michael!”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heckled at a concert,” said one 26-year-old in the upper deck. “But I loved seeing Brando--and I loved the concert.”

The concert ended with a rendition of “We Are the World,” as the evening’s performers were joined onstage by Yoko Ono, Kenny Rogers and others.

After the concert, Jackson, the other performers and 1,200 of the concert-goers--including his 350 celebrity invitees--were scheduled to attend a carnival-themed party at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Bryan Kalman, the restaurant’s catering director, said the group would be met by white-gloved waiters offering caviar and champagne while a barker beckoned them inside to play old-fashioned midway games.

The carnival and a sit-down dinner capped by “one of Michael’s favorite desserts” (coconut layer cake with strawberry ice cream) were included in package deals such as a $50,000 “benefactor’s circle.” In addition to 10 concert tickets and party reservations, that got you an ad in the program book and a commemorative poster signed by Jackson.