Tuesday, November 29th, saw The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah host a Black Theatre Night for the Tony-winning Best Musical A Strange Loop, with an insightful cast and creator talkback following that evening’s performance. Open to all theatre-lovers, the event offered a special welcome to Black theatregoers. The show, which recently added a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album to it list of accolades, centres on Usher, a Black queer writer who is wrestling with his thoughts as he writes a musical about a Black queer writer writing a musical about a Black queer writer…Bold and heartfelt in its truth-telling, A Strange Loop is the unmissable “big, Black, and queer-ass Great American Musical”, which will play its final performance at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre on January 15th, 2023. Read our ★★★★★ review.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, composer and lyricist Michael R. Jackson—who is currently working on a new musical, White Girl In Danger, which will open Off-Broadway next year—told Noah on stage during the post-show discussion that it was the first time that he’d seen A Strange Loop in months. “I had a lot of thoughts”, Jackson told the audience, “I realized that the show is what it is and that it’s continually showing you what it is, both to itself and to the audience. This is a piece that just by being itself is a kind of radical act in a strange way. Watching it again tonight, I found myself moved to realize that again.”
Noah revealed that it was the fourth time he’d seen A Strange Loop, and shared his own evolving reaction to it, saying, “What I find interesting about it in particular is the first time you watch the play you may think, depending on who you are, ‘Oh, this is a play about Black and white.’ The second time you watch it you may go, ‘Oh no, this is a play about religion and how it controls people’s lives and how it tells us how we should be or shouldn’t be.’ Then it becomes about acceptance. Each time it feels like there is a different layer. The more I watch it, I realize it almost feels like a commentary on all these little prisons, all these structures, all these systems and I guess the most confining one being our minds.”
“It’s like a jewel that is constantly turning in the light and different facets of it assert themsleves or reveal themselves”, Jackson added. “That is part of its power, that’s why you can come back to it many times and see different aspects of it. It feels artistically validating for me, because I spent so many years trying to craft this experience of this person or the essence of this thought process that was trying to understand itself. To have people come and be a part of that, and for me to be able to come back to it and see that it’s still working, that it’s still playing itself out, that feels really special to me.”
Choreographer Raja Feather Kelly reflected on his intentions with his work on the show, “I’m trying to make you see that they are people. The choreography is built on their behavior. It’s not built in a way in which everyone has to do the exact same thing at the same time, everyone is meant to express themselves in a container. It has an inability to grow and change and shift. Sometimes when the audience laughs I’m like, ‘You’re laughing at choreography!’ I don’t think that’s very common. The choreography actually moves the story forward.”
Rona Siddiqui offered a window into her role as Musical Director, “It’s about the constant quest for telling the story as honestly as we possibly can. It’s like, why is it even a musical to begin with? Music heightens everything. When you can’t just talk anymore, that’s when you have to start to sing. So it’s then about, what does every single note and phrase represent? Then, how do we amplify that to get it to be the exact comedic moment or touching moment, or whatever? How do we crescendo this? How do we speak this word? It’s all in the details.”
“Being the only woman in this story, Thought 1 has a lot on her shoulders, as Black women do”, reflects L Morgan Lee, who was Tony-nominated for her performance in A Strange Loop. “She’s always trying to get Usher to think outside of the box that Usher has put himself into. She wants Usher to live and feel free. In those ways, there’s certainly an L Morgan element to her. As Thought 1, I want Usher to live his life, but I also want him to know why he’s doing it, to know why he’s taking the steps that he’s taking. To not be afraid to challenge himself, because that’s important and that’s how you actually find the next step. She likes for Usher to take a leap.”
Noah praised the performer for her singing in A Strange Loop, and asked her about the vocal choices that she had made. “I think Michael did a good job of shaping the sounds that happen in Thought 1”, L Morgan shared, “In ways that I also want to kill him sometimes, because a lot of my moments are very out front; they’re very exposed. They don’t get to sit back and ride the groove with the background, they’re like, ‘Oh, here she is!’ This is the first show that I’ve been a part of at this level post-transition and knowing that I’m able to sing through this score in the ways that I have been able to is such a beautiful reminder to self that, ‘Girl, you can do this, you’re good. Do what you need to do. You’ve been singing for forever’.”
Jaquel Spivey, who was Tony-nominated as Best Actor in a Musical for the role of Usher, opened up about what he hopes the audience will take away from his character in A Strange Loop. “I hope you see a human being, I hope you see a person. I feel like all the Broadway shows love to say that they’re telling real stories about real people, but real people don’t just break out into song! We’re telling a real story about somebody who exists that you probably don’t care about. They have worth and you should think that they have worth, but since you don’t, we’re going to show you why he does. We’re also going to show you why he doesn’t think he has worth and it’s because of you, no shade to the audience. We’re all trying our best. We’re all asking questions like, ‘What is life for us?’ ‘Where is my journey going to take me?’ We shouldn’t beat ourselves up for asking those questions. Usher is somebody trying to figure his shit out.”
Spivey, who made his Broadway debut with A Strange Loop, shared what he’d learnt about the character while playing him. “His imperfections are what make him gorgeous to me”, offered the performer. “At the end of the show, I want the audience to wonder what happens next. I don’t want you to think he’s made up his mind. There’s a lot in his life that could be do better, but does he strive for better? He never makes up in his mind what he’s going to. You’re watching him discover the hope within himself and trying to figure out what he’s capable of. In the beginning, I felt like Usher made up his mind that he was going to write a show, that it was going be good and he would win a Pulitzer. Then, I honestly had to take Michael out of the equation and go, ‘What happens if he doesn’t win a Pulitzer?’ ‘What happens if he’s not nominated for a Grammy?’ He’s still worthy. ‘What happens if people don’t like his show?’ He still has worth.”
Michael R. Jackson’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop will play its final Broadway performance on January 15th, 2013 at the Lyceum Theatre. To purchase tickets head to StrangeLoopMusical.com.
Watch the full A Strange Loop Black Theatre Night Talkback:
Leave a Reply