 Very occasionally there is a show that isn't just great theatre in itself, but has a profound impact on the whole theatrical ecosystem. One example, a few years ago, was Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton – and now another US musical has come along which, in different ways, will also hopefully shift the dial. A Strange Loop is, to quote a key lyric, a 'big, black and queer-ass' show that puts black queer experience front and centre like never before in commercial theatre, certainly. After being the toast of the town in New York, it has arrived at London's Barbican for a summer season, its glittering array of co-producers, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, Pose star Billy Porter, Mindy Kaling and Alan Cumming, testament to its renown. It has the kind of brain-frazzlingly meta-theatrical plot that feels thrillingly original for a show on such a big stage. At its centre is a character called Usher, a Black gay writer who works as a Broadway usher while writing a musical about… a Black gay writer who works as a Broadway usher while writing a musical about a Black gay writer – and so on. As its writer and composer Michael R Jackson explains, it was a show that was more than 15 years in the making, all beginning with a thinly veiled autobiographical monologue he wrote in his early twenties 'trying to capture a feeling of Black gay male alienation'. Director Michael R. Jackson wrote and composed 'A Strange Loop' trying to capture feelings of Black gay male alienation (Photo by Jack Hall/Getty Images) A Strange Loop' is as meta a concept as it sounds (Picture: Marc Brenner) Soon after, he started writing songs along this theme. But the whole concept and shape of the piece really clicked into place when he took a theatre job working front-of-house on the likes of The Lion King and Mary Poppins. He recalls a particular epiphany he had befo){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Very occasionally there is a show that isn’t just great theatre in itself, but has a profound impact on the whole theatrical ecosystem. One example, a few years ago, was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton – and now another US musical has come along which, in different ways, will also hopefully shift the dial.
A Strange Loop is, to quote a key lyric, a ‘big, black and queer-ass’ show that puts black queer experience front and centre like never before in commercial theatre, certainly.
After being the toast of the town in New York, it has arrived at London’s Barbican for a summer season, its glittering array of co-producers, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, Pose star Billy Porter, Mindy Kaling and Alan Cumming, testament to its renown.
It has the kind of brain-frazzlingly meta-theatrical plot that feels thrillingly original for a show on such a big stage.