Unapologetically big, Black and beautiful, ‘A Strange Loop’ has changed the face of Broadway
Welcome to Curtain Call, our mostly queer take on the latest theater openings on Broadway and beyond.Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop arrives on Broadway, backed by powerhouse producers, including RuPaul, Alan Cumming, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Ilana Glazer, and more.
The names above the title may pique the interest of celebrity-hungry theatergoers, but it’s the electrifying cast, led by newcomer Jaquel Spivey that dismantles everything we believed a Broadway musical “should” be.Spivey, as the central character of Usher, spirals through a bombardment of “extremely obnoxious” thoughts, brought to life by a chameleon-like ensemble.
From his day job as a Broadway usher to his ambition as a musical theater composer and conflicted relationship with his God-fearing mother and beer-swigging father, Usher nevertheless finds his way, delivering a “big, Black, and queer-*ss American Broadway show!”Related: Alexandra Grey turns trauma into triumph in The LifeA Strange Loop has been a lifetime in the making — Michael R.
Jackson’s lifetime. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, he eventually descended upon New York City to study playwrighting and musical theater writing at NYU.
