A Strange Loop is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. It won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2022 Tony for Best Musical.
A Strange Loop follows Usher (Jaquel Spivey) a black, queer writer writing a musical about a black, queer writer writing a musical about a black, queer writer. The title refers to a cognitive science term coined by Douglas Hofstadter, as well as the song by Liz Phair.
Remember the Pixar movie Inside Out where within the mind of a young girl named Riley are the basic emotions (aka, Thoughts) that control her actions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger.
A Strange Loop adds a couple more Thoughts like Self-Contempt and Denial to the mix to show how a young man struggles to establish his identity in a hostile world. I thought Jaquel Spivey was incredible in the role of Usher–who is on-stage 95% of the time. The depiction of making choices (some bad) after debating the Thoughts in his mind makes A Strange Loop a provocative, memorable musical. GRADE: A
Musical numbers:
- “Intermission Song” – Usher, Thoughts
- “Today” – Usher, Thoughts
- “We Wanna Know” – Thoughts
- “Inner White Girl” – Usher, Thoughts
- “Didn’t Want Nothin'” – Thought 5, Thoughts
- “Exile in Gayville” – Usher, Thoughts
- “Second Wave” – Usher
- “Tyler Perry Writes Real Life” – Usher, Thought 3, Thoughts
- “Writing a Gospel Play” – Usher, Thoughts
- “A Sympathetic Ear” – Thought 1
- “Inwood Daddy” – Usher, Thought 6, Thoughts
- “Boundaries” – Usher
- “Periodically” – Thought 4, Usher
- “Didn’t Want Nothin’ Reprise” – Thought 5
- “Precious Little Dream / AIDS Is God’s Punishment” – Usher, Thoughts
- “Memory Song” – Usher, Thoughts 2-6
- “A Strange Loop” – Usher, Thoughts
Fantastic!
The breadth of art and artists in the USA is wonderful – now compare this to the silly ideas of the repugs.
a Long time ago as a mathematician and reader of Scientific American I bought Gödel, Escher, Bach and read part of it. A really high intellectual level – I don’t claim that I understand all of it.
Wolf, I read Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach back in 1979 and like you I was perplexed by parts of the book. What a surprise to find it part of a contemporary Broadway musical!
Although I find this sort of thinking difficult to say the least, I am sure I would enjoy the attempt to understand it. (And the music).
Patti, A STRANGE LOOP takes you on a unique journey through the consciousness of a troubled person. The concept and execution of this musical threw me for a…loop!
Pass.
Jeff, if Katie and Patrick hadn’t had tickets for this musical, I might have passed, too. But Diane wanted to join them and tickets were available so we went. Glad we did!