About the show
Meet Usher: a black, queer writer writing a
musical about a black, queer writer writing a
musical about a black, queer writer…
Winner of the Tony Award® for Best Musical, Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning, blisteringly funny masterwork exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he both loves and loathes. Hell-bent on breaking free of his own self-perception, Usher wrestles with the thoughts in his head, brought to life on stage by a hilarious, straight-shooting ensemble. Bold and heartfelt in its truth-telling, A Strange Loop is the big, Black, and queer-ass Great American Musical for all!
“A STRANGE LOOP IS A FEROCIOUS, PUNGENT HIT—SOME OF THE MOST VITAL WORK IN AMERICAN THEATER.”
the new york times
“Broadway’s best new musical.”
The Washington Post
Usher plans to change his whole life today.
“Screamingly funny. Unmissable.”
Time Out New York
“A dazzling ride.”
The New York Times
How many minutes ‘til the end of intermission?
“Phenomenal. Unflinching.”
Variety
“Grade A: Nothing short of astounding.”
Entertainment Weekly
He wants to show what it’s like to travel the world in a fat, black, queer body.
“Triumphant and emotionally lacerating.”
LA Times
“By far the best new musical to open this season.”
The Wrap
“Deeply personal, rich, and funny.”
Chicago Tribune
What’s goin’ on in New York
The Origin of A Strange Loop
Michael R. Jackson: “At the very beginning, it was only a monologue that I wrote during my last year as a playwriting student at NYU. I was 22, 23 years old with a playwriting degree. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, so I wrote this thinly veiled, personal monologue called ‘Why I Can’t Get Work.’ That was about this young, Black gay man walking around New York, wondering why life was so terrible. And it was just that.1 I applied to a bunch of grad schools, and NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing was the one I got into. The form of musical theater and songwriting in particular, turned out to be the perfect container for writing I had been doing since middle school.2 One of my classmates—a friend of mine was another Black gay man—wrote a song about a one-night stand and feeling deep religious guilt about it and other feelings that I recognized, because I grew up Black and gay around a lot of other Black gay boys. And it just struck me. And I wrote in my notebook, “All those Black gay boys I knew who chose to go on back to the Lord.”3
“Memory Song”
MRJ: “At the end of my second semester, our teacher said, ‘If you’re a lyricist who’s never written any music and want to try it, or if you’re a composer and want to try writing lyrics, go for it.’ So the song I wrote was ‘Memory Song,’ and it was the first song I had ever written. And it was just a stand-alone song for me.4 The spirit of the song is recalling when I was 15 or 16, which is around the time when I was coming out, which was a very difficult and painful and weird time. I performed [a version of the show] one night only at ARS Nova in New York City. Twenty people came and two of them walked out in the middle of it. And then from there I was like, I don’t want this to be a one-man show, I don’t want this to be a cabaret act, I want it to be a musical.”5
Timeline of
A Strange Loop
Rebel Verses (Center Stage)
Fast Food Town (Ars Nova)
A Strange Loop (Playwrights Realm)
The Lark
Broadway’s Future Concert Series
Reading
Musical Theatre Factory
New Musicals at 54 Below
Reading at Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Broadway
Michael R. Jackson: “I felt determined that I could create something that had as much entertainment value as something that you would expect to see on Broadway, but that it had the sort of heart and intelligence that are in a lot of those classic musicals of yesteryear that are harder to get produced today.6 I had to learn what the story was. I’m a very story-driven writer, and it was drawn from my personal experience, but it needed to have a beginning, middle, and end, and there was no beginning, middle, and end to my life. It wasn’t until I started going to therapy that I realized the problem was, ‘Oh, you think something’s wrong with you. And there is nothing wrong with you.’ I captured that that was Usher’s problem—something’s wrong with him, he’s got to fix it—and once it was married to this strange-loop structure, I knew what I was chasing.”7
1.Slate’s Working Podcast 2. Playwrights Horizons 3. PBS’s American Masters Creative Spark Podcast 4. Playwrights Horizons 5. PBS’s American Masters Creative Spark Podcast 6. The Fabulous Invalid Podcast 7. Slate
