The world is not crying out for a review of Michael R Jackson's A Strange Loop (about a gay black man writing a musical about being a gay black man writing a musical) written by a straight white man writing about being a straight white man writing about writing a review of A Strange Loop. It’s enough to say I was compromised.
Despite the flaws in this fun but very self-absorbed show, Kyle Ramar Freeman as “Usher” has a commanding physical and vocal presence. Usher is a tormented usher working at a Disney musical. He is trying to craft his own autobiographical musical but his efforts are thwarted by his insecurities, personified on stage by five "Thoughts”. Freeman has a powerful vocal range and dominates the show, whether he’s navigating his writer’s block and expectations of writing African American musical theatre, bodily insecurities, being sexually humiliated by a white racist (played by a black actor) or his prying prejudiced family. What it doesn’t have is much dramatic conflict, aside from the solipsistic loop of the title.
A Strange Loop is very graphic but the sexual vernacular is probably less problematic for UK audiences than the many references to the gospel-influenced playwright Tyler Perry, whose work is repeatedly trashed. It's possible to follow those references without too much confusion but the transition to London feels slightly awkward.
The other meta-musical gags about shows like Hamilton are funny and the climactic gospel number which doubles as a Tyler Perry parody ("AIDS is God’s Punishment") is affecting. Ironically, it’s also the best song. Perhaps the style of the whole piece, a sort of middle-of-the-road musical with hints of indie rock, is intended as a send-up of white Broadway blandness; Usher is hungry to unleash his "inner white girl". But sending up musical blandness can beget musical blandness.
The show has won scores of awards from its Broadway run, including multiple Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, but, for this critic at least, for what it’s worth, its solipsism is ultimately draining.