Michael R Jackson’s trailblazing musical A Strange Loop has made its London debut with unapologetic abandon. The debut musical from the author had the New York theatre scene buzzing when Jackson became the first African American composer to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as it also being the first ever musical to win the award before being produced on Broadway.

The show itself centres on Usher, a black gay man who’s writing a musical about a black gay man, who’s writing a musical about a black gay man. His musical ‘A Strange Loop’ explores the same named cognitive science term when applied to his own existence and his experience navigating his sexual, physical and emotional identity, as well as his relationships with his family and religion, and what that means as a black gay man in the modern world.

Michael R Jackson took home the 2022 TONY for ‘Best Book of a Musical’ and it’s not hard to see why. A Strange Loop is nothing short of a dramaturgical masterpiece. Jackson manifests Usher’s thoughts through the six featured actors on stage, simultaneously exploring his opinions of himself and relationships with his family. What Jackson’s book and score do so spectacularly is allow us to better understand the effect that our parents’ perception of us can have on our own perception of ourselves. Equally self-love and self-hate only grow when watered and when the latter is done so by people whose approval we seek on a primal level, it can ultimately affect every aspect of how we grow and who we become.

A Strange Loop is as hilarious as it is brutal. Jackson’s book careens through witty one-liners and side-splitting moments, mainly about the course side of queer dating. A Strange Loop takes every opportunity to viscerally show us how people of colour in the world and in the queer space are perceived, have been routinely abused, and are constantly fetishised. The production fearlessly forces white viewers to hold a mirror up to themselves and question how they have enabled systemic acts of brutality against people of colour for too long and demand if this will ever really change. The show’s presentation through its device of metafiction, vividly allows us to see how Usher himself navigates his artistry on the fringes of the cultural mainstream. His uncertainty and where it’s going, how it will end, or even if it will end demonstrate a palpable familiarity of an unbreakable cycle that people find themselves in all too often.

Jen Shriever’s lighting design gorgeously supports the many mental transitions of Usher throughout the show, the separation of his thoughts and his emotions through pride colours, pride being something Usher is so often trying to seek. Arnulfo Maldonado’s set design is simple yet effective, using a series of doorways to underpin Usher’s needs for compartmentalisation as a coping strategy, however effective it may be. Stephen Brackett keeps the direction fluid and pacy, unafraid of silence or being static when moments of raw emotion are needed to breathe and settle. There were moments in the space at the Barbican where the sound of the performers was hard to hear and the band also seemed to be too quiet.

Kyle Ramar Freeman, an alumna of the original Broadway company of A Strange Loop, takes on the role of Usher with an intricate and captivating nuance. His vocals soar with emotional weight and his ability to hold a room in a moment is breathtaking. Freeman devours one of the greatest monologues ever written for theatre towards the end of the show, leaving the audience shattered in its wake before a round of rapturous applause. Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea, Danny Bailey, Eddie Elliot, Sharlene Hector, Tendai Humphrey Sitima, and Yeukayi Ushe play the thoughts with expert humour, pathos and bite. They all adopt similar personalities and characters and work well cohesively and individually, and need to be commended for their ability to work as an ensemble in the truest sense.

A Strange Loop concerns the idea that be it upward or downward, you progress through a series of hierarchical levels that are linked to one and other via some sort of relationship. You keep on accessing the levels until eventually you are back where you started. So where does it end? Does it end? This is what Usher asks of himself, how does he end his musical? But also, how does he end the self-hate, the relentless pilgrimage for approval from a family that will accept God over Usher’s true self, how does he gain affirmation as an artist and most importantly as a queer black plus sized man? Some cycles need to break, but it feels like it’s getting harder each day to break through when evermore intricate barriers are put up, and with the American Supreme Court now ruling that business owners can discriminate against the queer community based on their religious beliefs, the loop unfortunately just feels like it will keep on going.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Duncan Burt

A Strange Loop plays at the Barbican Theatre until 9 September, with tickets available here.