Review: 'A Strange Loop' makes a remarkable Broadway debut

Every once and a while, we get something that pushes the musical theater form completely, taking an utterly unforgettable, idiosyncratic trip

NEW YORK -- There is a cosmic deliciousness to the fact that “A Strange Loop” has landed on Broadway mere yards away from one of its juiciest targets.

In the new musical that opened Tuesday at the Lyceum Theatre, we meet the character Usher, an unhappy playwright slumming as an usher at “The Lion King,” which in real life is playing just across 7th Avenue at the Miskoff Theatre. If the wind was just right, Usher might be able to heave a rock and hit Rafiki.

Every once and a while — sadly, too few — we get something that pushes the musical theater form completely, taking an utterly unforgettable, idiosyncratic trip. Add Michael R. Jackson's “A Strange Loop” to the list that includes “Fun Home” and “Angels in America,” both of which have echoes here. Like them, it is astonishing, challenging and awesome.

Jackson's 2020 Pulitzer Prize drama winner is a theater meta-journey — a tuneful show about a Black gay man writing a show about a Black gay man. That show is also called “A Strange Loop.”