Sold-Out Crowd Cheers Jackson in Singapore : Tour: Embattled pop singer celebrates his 35th birthday, with actress Elizabeth Taylor at his side for moral support.

Michael Jackson played the first of two scheduled concerts here Sunday, as a sold-out audience of 45,000 people cheered and his close friend Elizabeth Taylor watched in the wings.

Taylor and her husband, Larry Fortensky, flew here from Los Angeles to give the embattled singer moral support after a week of published allegations that the singer sexually abused a 13-year-old boy.

Jackson celebrated his 35th birthday Sunday, with the band striking up “Happy Birthday” and Jackson squawking “Thank you” to the audience several times.

Those were his only remarks to the crowd during the one-hour, 50-minute performance, which began with fireworks and lasers. Jackson, on the second leg of his “Dangerous” world tour, made no mention of the allegations.

Singapore TV said concert promoters worked to alleviate Jackson’s problems with the tropical heat, which forced him to twice postpone a concert in Bangkok. The stage where Jackson performed was equipped with four industrial fans, which blew across blocks of dry ice to cool the air onstage. Jackson also had a specially air-conditioned dressing room.

He had twice postponed concerts because of what his doctor said was acute dehydration from the tropical heat.

Jackson will play a second concert today before traveling to Taiwan.

According to confidential documents, a Los Angeles teen-ager told child welfare workers that Jackson had oral sex with him during a four-month relationship that began in February. Police opened an investigation Aug. 17.

The entertainer has denied any wrongdoing, and his spokesman contends that the allegation arose from a $20-million extortion attempt by the boy’s father, a Beverly Hills dentist. Jackson attorney Howard Weitzman said police told him the father is the target of an extortion investigation.

Police have refused to discuss the extortion charge or other aspects of the case.

Before Jackson left Bangkok for Singapore, a fracas erupted between his handlers and locals during a video shoot at the Thai air force cadets’ academy.

The Bangkok Post, quoted by the Associated Press, said an angry crowd shouted: “Get out of here and go home. Never come back again,” at Jackson and his group, after bodyguards and Thai police tried to stop cameramen from zooming in on Jackson. Some film was reportedly confiscated.