Michael R. Jackson (1) (1981–)

I've grown a bit tired of meta-narratives from the last decade and a half of Dan Harmon milking that genre for everything he can, but this was uniquely hilarious and raunchy and honest and a bit sad. Definitely will need to find a cast recording and see it if I can see it in person sometime, I am sure the timing and emotion and humor comes through even better than a read.

I would love to see this musical play staged. How would they do it? Essentially there is one character a small, pudgy, gay, black man who is an usher at a Disney theater and is writing a play in his hours off. The other "characters" are six different thought voices in the usher's head. The usher has been brought up in a strict religious home and his career and homosexuality are a struggle especially with his mother who wants him to find a girl and write Tyler Perry type plays which he show more doesn't. His are raw. I get the acclaim but this play will be shocking to many. show less

Still Mostly Cringe
A review of the Theater Communications Group paperback (November 2020).

This is a postcard from Outlier Island 🏝️📨📬.
Call me old fashioned but I enjoyed the days of musicals with songs you could actually understand and sing along with. I think of myself as open-minded, but songs about c**** and d**** with liberal use of the n***** word throughout do not exactly inspire sing-along status. This is admittedly an ambitious journey into what was probably the author's show more working out of his inner issues and is as messy as life itself. But it swings from cringe moments to weirdly embarrassing ones throughout.

The plot in brief has the lead character Usher. He actually works as an usher ("Intermission") for a NYC theatre where "The Lion King" is in perpetual performance. He is trying to write his own stage musical ("Big, Black and Queer-Ass American Broadway Show"), while being tormented by his six thoughts (only the self-loathing one is named) who also play all the other character cameos needed. He is an introvert gay black man ("Exile in Gayville"), who cannot make a romantic connection. Ma and pa back home constantly telephone to distract him further. Ma demands that he write a gospel musical ("Writing a Gospel Play"), which is eventually brought to life as a dark parody ("AIDS is God's Punishment"). A reconciliation comes with the final song ("These Are My Memories"). That finale was the only musically memorable number.

Reading the playscript I saw that the cue to get the audience clapping along to "AIDS is God's Punishment" is actually written into the script!. In practice this started off enthusiastically until we all realized: "Wait a minute, what is this we are clapping along to?" 🤔

See photo at https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/518384225_31411536818445037_4...
Curtain call at the Toronto Crow's Theatre/Soulpepper production of "A Strange Loop" (June 2025). Image sourced from own photo.

When I reviewed the live performance it was a 3-star, that was mostly due to the exuberance of the cast. Reading it on the page makes it more cringey as I can actually understand the words (often lost in cacophony on stage). There were some funny moments: the phone calls from ma and pa, the cameo appearances of various black icons (Harriet Tubman, Carter G. Woodson, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Whitney Houston, etc). Attacking easy targets such as Tyler Perry, Wendy Williams, Michael Jackson, less so.

Soundtrack
Listen to the 2022 Broadway cast recording on a YouTube playlist that starts here or on Spotify here.

You can hear an excerpt from the song "These Are My Memories" performed by 2025 Toronto cast member Malachi McCaskill as Usher in a YouTube clip here.

Other Reviews
Read a review of the 2025 Toronto production by The Musical Stage Company / Crow's Theatre / Soulpepper Theatre / TO Live at The Slotkin Letter here. show less

Jeez Loueez! I made it about 30% through and stopped. Not for me. I don't care if it won the Drama Pulitzer. Too much sexually graphic.