# A Strange Loop
**A Strange Loop** is a meta-musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, about a young, Black, gay theater usher named Usher who is trying to write a musical about a young, Black, gay theater usher writing a musical, and so on without end.[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) It won the 2020 [Pulitzer Prize for Drama](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize-for-drama) while still [Off-Broadway](https://www.edgepedia.org/off-broadway), then transferred to Broadway in 2022, where it was nominated for 11 [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards) and won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical.[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) • [2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) Jackson has called it "a big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show," a phrase Usher sings in the opening number.[3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Book, music, lyrics, and vocal arrangements by Michael R. Jackson, who also directs none of it; Stephen Brackett directed[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) |
| Premise | Usher, a Broadway usher for The Lion King, writes a self-referential musical while six performers playing his "Thoughts" heckle him[4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph) |
| Pulitzer Prize | 2020 Drama prize, won while the show was Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons; the first musical to win without a Broadway run[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) • [5](https://www.arts.gov/stories/podcast/revisiting-michael-r-jackson) |
| Broadway run | Lyceum Theatre, April 26, 2022 to January 15, 2023; 13 previews and 293 performances[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) |
| Tony Awards | 11 nominations in 2022; won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) |
| Running time | About 1 hour and 45 minutes[4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph) |
| London debut | Barbican Theatre, June to 9 September 2023, with Kyle Ramar Freeman as Usher[3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html) |
## Premise and structure
The musical is framed around self-referentiality. Usher, "a fat, black, gay musical theatre writer," works as an usher for a Disney show on Broadway, The Lion King, and in his off-hours writes a musical about a fat, Black, gay musical theater writer doing the same thing.[6](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/a-strange-loop-barbican-review-tony-award-pulitzer-michael-r-jackson-b1091136.html) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph) The title comes from two sources: "Strange Loop," the closing song on [Liz Phair](https://www.edgepedia.org/liz-phair)'s album Exile in Guyville, and the theory of the [strange loop](https://www.edgepedia.org/strange-loop) advanced by the cognitive scientist [Douglas Hofstadter](https://www.edgepedia.org/douglas-hofstadter), which describes self-referential systems and how self-definition arises from self-recursion.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jun/06/sex-strange-loop-queer-black-broadway-megasmash-michael-r-jackson-lion-king-usher) • [8](https://chicago.suntimes.com/theater/2026/10/19/review-a-strange-loop-raven-theatre-about-face-theatre)
Six performers play Usher's inner Thoughts, who cosplay as his Bible-loving parents, rejecting lovers, and other figures while berating him about his body image, his Black identity, and his sex life.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph) • [3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html) The ensemble members also play all the supporting characters; in the song "We Wanna Know," all six play Usher's mother.[9](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/2/69) The show unfolds as a series of episodes without a single conflict-driven plot, and Jackson has said it is "self-referential as opposed to autobiographical," though the protagonist is clearly a version of the author, who also worked as a Disney usher and is Black, queer, and lisping.[8](https://chicago.suntimes.com/theater/2026/10/19/review-a-strange-loop-raven-theatre-about-face-theatre) • [9](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/2/69)
The subject matter is deliberately uncomfortable. Usher's parents urge him to write a wholesome gospel play like their hero, the actor-director [Tyler Perry](https://www.edgepedia.org/tyler-perry), and one song, repeated as a catchy refrain, is titled "AIDS is God's Punishment."[10](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jun/29/a-strange-loop-review-fat-black-queer-body-musical-is-magnificent) • [3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html) Reviews noted the show contains graphic sexual content and obscenity throughout, and one scene of masochism carries a trigger warning.[3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html)
## Development and productions
Jackson began the piece in 2001 as a spoken monologue called "Why I Can't Get Work," written after he graduated from NYU with a BFA in playwriting and was living in [Jamaica, Queens](https://www.edgepedia.org/jamaica-queens).[11](https://www.tdf.org/on-stage/tdf-stages/is-a-strange-loop-the-most-meta-musical-ever/) He later added his own songs, starting with "Memory Song," which became the penultimate number of the finished musical; by one account, 16 years passed between that song and the show's arrival at Playwrights Horizons.[12](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/theater/article/strange-loop-michael-r-jackson-19210752.php) A formative suggestion came from director Stephen Brackett, who asked what would happen if the piece were performed entirely by Black gay men; a reading followed around 2012.[13](https://musicaltheatertoday.com/excerpts/michael-r-jackson-a-strange-loop/)
The world premiere opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2019, produced in association with Page 73, with Larry Owens as Usher and a cast that also won five Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical.[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) • [9](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/2/69) The run was twice extended, and the show picked up the New York Drama Critics' Circle prize for best musical and the Lambda Literary Award for Drama.[14](https://broadwaydirect.com/inside-the-wild-broadway-ride-of-a-strange-loop/) • [5](https://www.arts.gov/stories/podcast/revisiting-michael-r-jackson) After a December 2021 production at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, the show transferred to Broadway.[5](https://www.arts.gov/stories/podcast/revisiting-michael-r-jackson)
The Broadway production opened at the Lyceum Theatre on April 26, 2022, produced by a large coalition including [Jennifer Hudson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jennifer-hudson), Billy Porter, Steven Spielberg, RuPaul Charles, Alan Cumming, and [Don Cheadle](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-cheadle).[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) Jaquel Spivey made his Broadway debut as Usher, and the show led the 2021-22 season with 11 Tony nominations.[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph) It ran 293 performances before closing on January 15, 2023.[2](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382) Jackson's co-producer Jennifer Hudson completed the EGOT with the win.[15](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/13/six-composer-toby-marlow-first-non-binary-tony-awards-winner)
A London production opened at the Barbican in June 2023, with Brackett recreating his Tony-nominated direction and the Broadway creative team, including choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, scenic designer Arnulfo Maldonado, and music supervisor Rona Siddiqui.[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) Kyle Ramar Freeman, who had understudied Usher on Broadway, took the lead role in London.[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) Later productions followed in San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Toronto, and the show is licensed for amateur and professional productions through Concord Theatricals.[16](https://shop.concordtheatricals.com/api/v1/product/document/123701)
## Reception and significance
Critics consistently highlighted the show's formal challenge. The Independent noted that its bombastic musical-theater style could become "overwhelming to the point of incomprehension," while calling its emotional impact difficult to overstate.[3](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html) Time Out called it "an extremely Black, extremely queer, extremely horny, extremely New York show" that is "extremely weird," and gave the London production four stars.[17](https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/a-strange-loop-review) The Guardian's Broadway review described a "gymnastics-like excavation into one man's search for himself" in the roughly 100-minute running time.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph)
The awards carry two forms of historical weight. The 2020 Pulitzer made A Strange Loop only the tenth musical to win the Drama prize in the award's history, and the first to win without having played Broadway; it did not make Jackson the first African American writer to win the Drama prize, a feat achieved by Charles Gordone in 1970.[1](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop) • [9](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/2/69) • [20](https://secure.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/find-historical-markers-by-county/indiana-historical-markers-by-county/charles-gordone/) The Los Angeles Times wrote that the 2022 Tony wins represented "a breakthrough for what kind of stories can be successfully presented on Broadway stages," in a season the network coverage described as Broadway's most racially diverse.[18](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-06-12/why-a-strange-loop-tony-wins-are-momentous-for-broadway) • [15](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/13/six-composer-toby-marlow-first-non-binary-tony-awards-winner) Scholars of musical theater have read the show as queering the genre's conventions, arguing that its metareferential structure denies the protagonist, and the audience, dramatic closure.[19](https://researchportal.vub.be/en/publications/queering-the-musical-theater-tradition-narrative-metareferentiali/)
## References
1. [Reviews: What Are London Critics Saying About Pulitzer Prize-Winning A Strange Loop? (Playbill)](https://playbill.com/article/reviews-what-are-london-critics-saying-about-pulitzer-prize-winning-a-strange-loop)
2. [A Strange Loop – Broadway Musical – Original (IBDB)](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-strange-loop-533382)
3. [A Strange Loop review: A musical within a musical that you can never second guess (The Independent)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-barbican-b2367111.html)
4. [A Strange Loop review – Michael R Jackson's thrilling Broadway triumph (The Guardian)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/17/a-strange-loop-review-michael-r-jacksons-thrilling-broadway-triumph)
5. [Revisiting Michael R. Jackson (National Endowment for the Arts)](https://www.arts.gov/stories/podcast/revisiting-michael-r-jackson)
6. [A Strange Loop at the Barbican review (Evening Standard)](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/a-strange-loop-barbican-review-tony-award-pulitzer-michael-r-jackson-b1091136.html)
7. ['There will be sex!' Inside A Strange Loop (The Guardian)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jun/06/sex-strange-loop-queer-black-broadway-megasmash-michael-r-jackson-lion-king-usher)
8. [Review: Ambitious 'A Strange Loop' is a strange loop (Chicago Sun-Times)](https://chicago.suntimes.com/theater/2026/10/19/review-a-strange-loop-raven-theatre-about-face-theatre)
9. [Disrupting Heteronormative Temporality through Queer Dramaturgies: Fun Home, Hadestown and A Strange Loop (Arts, 2020)](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/2/69)
10. [A Strange Loop review – 'fat, Black, queer body' musical is magnificent (The Guardian)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jun/29/a-strange-loop-review-fat-black-queer-body-musical-is-magnificent)
11. [Michael R. Jackson Interview for A Strange Loop at Playwrights Horizons (TDF Stages)](https://www.tdf.org/on-stage/tdf-stages/is-a-strange-loop-the-most-meta-musical-ever/)
12. [Broadway's unlikely usher: How 'A Strange Loop' became a decorated musical (San Francisco Chronicle)](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/theater/article/strange-loop-michael-r-jackson-19210752.php)
13. [Interview: Michael R. Jackson "A Strange Loop" (Musical Theater Today)](https://musicaltheatertoday.com/excerpts/michael-r-jackson-a-strange-loop/)
14. [Inside the Wild Broadway Ride of A Strange Loop (Broadway Direct)](https://broadwaydirect.com/inside-the-wild-broadway-ride-of-a-strange-loop/)
15. [Tony Awards' historic night (Axios)](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/13/six-composer-toby-marlow-first-non-binary-tony-awards-winner)
16. [A Strange Loop licensing materials (Concord Theatricals)](https://shop.concordtheatricals.com/api/v1/product/document/123701)
17. [A Strange Loop review (Time Out London)](https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/a-strange-loop-review)
18. [Why the Tony triumph of 'A Strange Loop' is momentous for Broadway (Los Angeles Times)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-06-12/why-a-strange-loop-tony-wins-are-momentous-for-broadway)
19. [Queering the Musical Theater Tradition: Narrative Metareferentiality in Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop (Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Brill)](https://researchportal.vub.be/en/publications/queering-the-musical-theater-tradition-narrative-metareferentiali/)
20. [Charles Gordone](https://secure.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/find-historical-markers-by-county/indiana-historical-markers-by-county/charles-gordone/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Theater traditions by region › Theater of the Americas › Broadway theatre*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license