Preview Thoughts on A Strange Loop

This is a really busy week; it's hard to keep up with all the wonderful stuff I've been fortunate enough to see!  Just to warn you today, once again I have to share a caveat that I know and love the creator of the new musical A Strange Loop, so it will be hard for me to be objective.  I just think he's one of the most unique and monstrously talented people I've ever met.  But I don't think objectivity factors into my opinion here because this show is OFF.THE.CHARTS amazing and brilliant!  I can't imagine how anyone would come to an opinion other than that.

Since the show is still in previews, I'll only offer a few thoughts.  Besides, I was so thoroughly undone by this musical, I'm still having trouble collecting my thoughts.  Seriously, I was wrecked.  In the best theatrical way.  I still feel on the verge of ugly sobs when I replay some of the moments in my mind.  I guess what I really want to say is that Michael R Jackson is a force who will be gracing American stages for years to come, if I have anything to say about it.  We need to lift more voices like his - the piece he wrote for the Playwrights Horizons program just illustrates how smart he is and how his thinking can move our industry forward (take a look at that piece HERE).  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

A Strange Loop is a musical about a young musical theater writer of color named Usher, who is writing a musical called A Strange Loop.  He also happens to be an usher at The Lion King (which adds much humor throughout).  The story is relatively episodic, with Usher working through his issues of writing and his issues of life.  He's surrounded by six characters known as the Thoughts - one plays Usher's 'crippling self-doubt,' another is his 'sexuality,' and so on.  Those actors also play various people in Usher's life, often at the same time.  Scenes where all of the actors play Usher's mother are particularly charming.

This musical is riotously funny, with tart insights into the theater industry, and this musical is also blisteringly raw, real, and heartbreakingly sad.  I felt Usher's pain and confusion acutely, and I'll only say that there was one number where I came close to losing complete control of myself and my emotion, it was so thrillingly and theatrically honest.  The songs are all fantastic, with melodies and lyrics that pair so perfectly for what the song is trying to achieve in the story.  The physical production is also incredible - the direction, the choreography, and the musical direction all support and lift the writing to its ultimate potential.

And the cast.  Oh my god, the cast.  Larry Owens plays Usher and I don't know when I've seen such a perfect performance.  He's onstage nearly the entire show; he sings fabulously, he is a tender and special actor, and he just destroyed me.  Really, everyone is so so so good, but he is just another level.  In my perfect world, I will see him do all the shows from now on.  After I see A Strange Loop another 70 times.  

I guess I should throw in a comment that this is a show that is frank about black queer sexuality, there's some graphic language and sexual situations that discomfited some audience members (there were a few walkouts; their loss), but when the storytelling is so bold and honest and singular, I welcome that frankness.  And you know, every time I think to myself, "I know someone who can write a musical like that," I start crying again.  Michael is so special, please, do yourself (and me) the favor of checking out A Strange Loop.  You will not see a musical like this anytime soon and I want the gatekeepers in NYC to know that this is the work we want to see right now.  This is the work we NEED to see.  Please go.