New Musicals at 54: A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson

Bookwriter and composer-lyricist Michael R. Jackson takes us on a concert-style jaunt through his seriocomic concept musical A Strange Loop. The show follows Usher, a black, gay musical theater writer who works as an usher in the back of the house at a long-running Broadway show. This show serves as the literal and metaphorical backdrop for the war he wages against the thoughts in his own head… while struggling to write a self-referential musical called A Strange Loop. The concert will feature several special guest stars who will portray Usher and an ensemble of men who will portray his thoughts manifested in forms including his parents, men on online sex apps, and Tyler Perry gospel play stage characters. A Strange Loop follows Usher as he fights to disrupt the static repetition he feels in his life… until he is swept into a painful confrontation with his long held negative perception of himself.