A Strange Loop
May 24, 2019 - July 28, 2019 World Premiere Production
Book, music, & lyrics by Michael R. Jackson
Directed by Stephen Brackett
Choreography by Raja Feather Kelly
Produced in partnership with Playwrights Horizons
VENUE
Playwrights Horizons
Mainstage Theater
416 West 42 Street
New York, NY 10036
DIGITAL PROGRAM
CAST
Antwayn Hopper — Thought #6
James Jackson, Jr. — Thought #2
L Morgan Lee — Thought #1
John-Michael Lyles — Thought #3
John-Andrew Morrison — Thought #4
Larry Owens — Usher
Jason Veasey — Thought #5
CREATIVE TEAM
Scenic Design: Arnulfo Maldonado
Costume Design: Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting Design: Jen Schriever
Sound Design: Alex Hawthorn
Orchestration: Charlie Rosen
Music Director: Rona Siddiqui
Production Stage Manager: Erin Gioia Albrecht
Assistant Stage Manager: John C. Moore
SYNOPSIS
Usher is a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical. Michael R. Jackson’s blistering, momentous new musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons — not least of which, the punishing thoughts in his own head — in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.
USHER
These are my memories / Of one lone black gay boy I knew who chose to turn his back on the Lord.
MICHAEL R. JACKSON
Michael R. Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a songwriter, he has seen his work performed everywhere from Joe’s Pub to NAMT. He wrote book, music, and lyrics for the musical White Girl In Danger. He also wrote lyrics and co-wrote book for the musical adaptation of the 2007 horror film Teeth with composer and co-bookwriter Anna K. Jacobs. He is an alum of Page 73’s 2018 Interstate Writers Group, the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony, the Ars Nova Uncharted Writers Group, and was a Sundance Theater Institute Composer Fellow. He has received a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2017 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a 2016/2017 Dramatist Guild fellowship, and was the 2017 Williamstown Theatre Festival Playwright-In-Residence, and has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions and LCT3.
2019 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award winner
2019 Whiting Award winner
2017 Jonathan Larson Award winner
2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award winner
WINNER! 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA
2022 TONY AWARDS
WINNER! Best Musical
WINNER! Best Book of a Musical
WINNER! Best Musical of 2020
NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS’ CIRCLE AWARD
WINNER! Lamda Literary Award for Drama
2020 DRAMA DESK AWARDS
WINNER! Outstanding Musical
WINNER! Outstanding Direction of a Musical
WINNER! Outstanding Lyrics
WINNER! Outstanding Book
WINNER! Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Nomination for Outstanding Music
WINNER! 2020 OBIE AWARDS
Playwriting: Michael R. Jackson
Special Citation for the Creative Team and Ensemble
WINNER! Best New Musical
2020 OFF-BROADWAY ALLIANCE
The Dramatists Guild of America Council has selected Michael R. Jackson as the recipient of the 2019 Hull-Warriner Award for his musical A Strange Loop and the recipient of the Frederick Loewe Award for Dramatic Composition for his score to A Strange Loop
2020 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE HONORS
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
Outstanding Book of a Musical
Outstanding New Score
Outstanding Director of a Musical
Outstanding Choreographer
Outstanding Actor in a Musical
2020 LUCILLE LORTEL AWARDS
Nomination for Outstanding Musical
Nomination for Outstanding Director
Nomination for Outstanding Choreography
Nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical
Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design
WINNER! Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical,
Larry Owens
WINNER! Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical,
John-Andrew Morrison
2020 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARD NOMINATIONS
Outstanding Production of a Musical
Distinguished Performance
WINNER! Best Book of a Musical
ANTONYO AWARDS
“A full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins—A Strange Loop is a gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies by the very deft Michael R. Jackson.”
Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“Exhilarating and wickedly funny. A triumph!”
Sara Holdren, New York Magazine
★★★★★ Critic’s Pick!
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
“A terrific ensemble with razor-sharp direction by Stephen Brackett and kinetic choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.”
Frank Rizzo, Variety
“A Strange Loop is ecstatic. The self is a fearful thing. Michael R. Jackson’s project – to isolate and put it onstage – is impossible, and its impossibility is its power.”
Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker
In Dialogue with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
BrooklynRail.org
Sneak Peak at First Rehearsal Photos
Playbill.com
Video: Hilton Als in Conversation with Michael R. Jackson
The New Yorker‘s Hilton Als interviews composer Michael R. Jackson, who previews songs from A Strange Loop. watch →
Playwright’s Perspective: Michael R. Jackson
W.E.B. DuBois coined the term “double consciousness” to describe the uniquely African-American experience of “always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” But what is a “self” anyway?
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Writer Michael R. Jackson and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly discuss this bold new musical’s development and the movement inspired by the show’s principal character and sextet of black, queer performers who embody and embolden Usher’s frantic, incessant “Thoughts.”
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This production is in partnership with Playwrights Horizons.
