Theatre review: Nine Sixteenths at Nottingham Playhouse

She was one of the highest paid artists of the nineties. Her music videos were the reason MTV branched out into RnB and hip hop, and despite coming from one of the most famous families in the world, she had become a huge star in her own right.

Then in 2004, with four hit albums and ten US number one singles to her name, Janet Jackson performed Rhythm Nation at the Super Bowl Half Time show. Justin Timblerlake, who had left boyband NSYNC to launch his solo career, joined her on stage for the last few minutes of the set. In the final beat of their duet, Timblerlake rips away part of Jackson’s costume, exposing her right breast to a live audience of more than 140million people.

The offending incident lasted just nine sixteenths of a second. Noone even saw a nipple because it was covered by a piece of jewellery. And yet ‘Nipplegate’, as it became known, snowballed into a national scandal, attracting a record number of viewer complaints, triggering tighter regulation around live broadcasting (hello, ten second time delay) and completely derailing Jackon’s career just as she was about to release another album.

In her four-woman play Nine Sixteenths – a reference to just how fleeting the infamous boob flash was – US-born performance artist Paula Varjack retells the story against the backdrop of her own life as a queer black woman. She grew up listening to Janet and trying (like so many of us now in our forties) to learn the dance routine to Rhythm Nation. She moved to London, experiencing techno, jungle and garage on UK dancefloors, before coming full circle, reconnecting with Jackson as she witnessed her command the Legends slot at Glastonbury 2019.

With this play, Varjack - just like her idol before her - has found her own way to shed light on injustice. She narrates her own story alongside Janet’s. She uses music and dance, real clips of complaint emails (hilarious) and uncomfortable TV interviews that aired after the Super Bowl storm.

The cast introduce themselves using their real names, ages and a summary of their interesting careers: Pauline Mayers, multidisciplinary theatremaker and facilitator; Julienne Doko, dancer, choreographer and teacher, and Holistic Creative Arts Therapist, Chia Phoenix. The camaraderie between the four women is joyous, grounding Varjack’s storytelling in sisterhood and authenticity, with full BSL interpretation by Vinessa Brant and Cherie Gordon. It feels like she wants this to be about all of us. No woman left behind.

Nine Sixteenths is endlessly entertaining whilst simultaneously addressing diversity, inclusivity and the raging double standards of the entertainment industry. Because although both Janet and Justin issued a public apology coining the phrase ‘wardrobe malfunction’, Timberlake’s career flourished while Jackson’s stalled. He attended the Grammys post-Nipplegate, she was notably absent. His music was everywhere, hers was banned from radio stations across the US. And if you don’t know the ending, it probably won’t surprise you that there were a small number of men calling the shots and making the money.

Nine Sixteenths reminds us how a life and career can be knocked off course in the blink of an eye. The silver lining is how inspired Varjack was by the glitz, glamour and scale of those big half time shows. How she felt called to action by #justiceforjanet and what it means to remember and learn from it.

You won’t come away knowing for sure whether Nipplegate was a set-up, but you will leave with a supremely fresh take on what happened, who suffered and who profited.

At the end of Act III, when Varjack and co finally got their big Rhythm Nation dance moment, we were left with just one burning question: what would Ms Jackson think of the show?

Someone book her a ticket immediately.

Nine Sixteenths played at the Nottingham Playhouse on Friday March 20 2026.