A Strange Loop Gets Into the Mind of Its Gay Black Protagonist
A Strange Loop is likely to throw Broadway audiences for one — in an entertaining and enlightening way.The musical play centers on the experiences of Usher, a queer Black man writing a musical about a queer Black man writing a musical, while working as a theater usher and being assailed by thoughts that threaten to undermine him.
It’s already had two acclaimed productions and won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and it’s premiering on Broadway in April at the Lyceum Theatre, one of the first Broadway productions with a Black queer protagonist.
And its cast is all LGBTQ+ people of color.Deeply moving yet full of lacerating humor, A Strange Loop is the creation of Michael R.
Jackson, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics. It originated with a monologue he composed 20 years ago, when he had just finished a bachelor’s degree in playwriting at New York University and was wondering what to do with his life.“I started a monologue about a young gay man walking around New York City wondering why life was so terrible,” he says.
