Reflections On ‘A Strange Loop’ – Barbican, London

Today’s post is a personal response in lieu of a review of A Strange Loop, on at the Barbican after its Broadway run.

A Not-Review Of A Strange Loop

This is not a review. I thought long and hard about it, but my thoughts on A Strange Loop are more complex than a typical review format allows. But if it’s not a review, what is it? More of a reflection I suppose. A thinking aloud about how I responded to this new musical, and why I responded in that way. I’m going to have to set the scene first though, so let’s do that now.

A Strange Loop is a new musical by Michael R. Jackson. A transfer from Broadway (where it won all the awards including a Pulitzer), it’s now on at the Barbican. It’s a very different prospect from the summer musical of the last two years, Anything Goes. A Strange Loop is about Usher, an usher at The Lion King. He’s struggling to write a musical, which is about an usher who is writing a musical. Jackson wrote the musical while he was working as an usher and struggling to write a musical. Hence the ‘strange loop’, which is also a reference to a theory of consciousness.

I thought the concept, and the idea of a “big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show”, sounded great. So I bought tickets early. I went in optimistically, and things started well. But by the time I came back out of the theatre, I felt very differently. I felt that the vibe in my section of the stalls was similar to mine: a bit bemused, and unsure of what they had seen. A few people left early. The huge response and ovation from a lot of the audience, then, was a surprise to me. If nobody had vibed with it, that’s one thing. I’ve written reviews of disappointing shows before. But the disparity had me thinking – what is it about this musical which provokes such different responses?

Not Being The Audience For Something Is OK

This next thought is a bit of an aside. As a reviewer, I try very hard to assess all the shows and exhibitions I see with an open mind. I am white and cis/het, not disabled, an immigrant, female: all in all a privileged position from which to experience the world. When I review a show, I feel I have an obligation not to assume that it will speak to something in my experience, but to be open to the makers’ intentions for it. I probably don’t always get it right, but I do try.

All this to say that it wasn’t the subject or the themes addressed that prevented me from connecting with A Strange Loop. I knew I was coming to see a queer, Black musical and that I am not queer or Black (or particularly musical). I do think that its American-ness is something of a barrier for non-American audiences: the cultural references come thick and fast. I’m vaguely aware of Tyler Perry but have no real frame of reference for his Christian films. I figured it out as we went along as it’s important to the plot. I spotted a father figure in a Cliff Huxtable jumper because my family used to watch the Cosby Show, but wonder how many audience members missed that. It’s not a reason to contain A Strange Loop to US productions, but it does mean its reception is different at home and abroad.

Maybe it’s a point about specificity vs. universality I’m mulling over here. Jackson interrogates systematic oppression throughout A Strange Loop, whether in the form of societal racism, anti-LGBTQIA+ interpretations of Christianity, or shaming of bodies which do not fit a ‘norm’. These are big topics. Yet the way in which they play out on stage feels so specific and personal, I began to feel I was inside an inconclusive therapy session. The ‘strange loop’ concept feels underdeveloped in the face of Usher’s personal and unresolved pain. I wonder if a bit more exposition of this theory was needed.

What To Do With This Information?

I don’t think there’s really anything to do. This is a personal response to having seen A Strange Loop, and a reflection on why different people can have very different experiences of the same performance. Let’s not forget, many people gave it a wildly enthusiastic standing ovation when I saw it.

For me, and not to get too business-like, it partly comes down to audience identification and marketing. Yes, there are content warnings. But the marketing for A Strange Loop positions it as a fun meta-musical, maybe a bit Groundhog Day in its looping concept. It’s not that. It starts out as something close, with Kyle Ramar Freeman as Usher and six other actors as his intrusive ‘Thoughts’. There are some good opening numbers, really funny scenes and then… it just got further and further from what I had been led to believe it was. One of the scenes was about the most difficult to watch I’ve ever seen. Given the few walkouts, it wasn’t just me who hadn’t expected the show that unfolded.

Structure and plot notwithstanding, however, what is unarguable is that the cast have magnificent voices and put in talented performances. I really want to speak to more people who have seen it. I haven’t quite unpacked all of my thoughts on it yet, and it’s one where I would like to be challenged to consider it in different ways. Perhaps it spoke to you in ways it didn’t even whisper to me. So let me know if that’s you in the comments and we can pick up the conversation about this “big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show”.