The London production featured Kyle Ramar Freeman as Usher, who was previously an understudy for the role on Broadway.
Musical Composition
The Broadway cast recording of A Strange Loop received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album for the 2023 Grammy Awards.
A Broadway cast album for A Strange Loop was recorded on April 10, 2022, and released on June 10, 2022. It debuted at number two on the Cast Albums chart.
The original cast recording of A Strange Loop from its off-Broadway production was released on September 27, 2019, and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Cast Albums chart.
Michael R. Jackson, the creator of the musical, wrote the book, music, and lyrics, integrating his personal experiences into the narrative.
The title 'A Strange Loop' refers to both a cognitive science term by Douglas Hofstadter and a song by Liz Phair.
Production Facts
The musical's protagonist, Usher, works as an usher at The Lion King while he dreams of writing his own show.
The Broadway production included famous producers such as Jennifer Hudson, RuPaul Charles, and Billy Porter among others.
Larry Owens starred as Usher in the original off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons.
A Strange Loop opened on Broadway on April 26, 2022, and retained much of its thematic and tonal elements from the off-Broadway version, albeit with adjustments for a broader audience.
The story of A Strange Loop centers on Usher, a Black queer man exploring his identity through the creative process.
A Strange Loop received the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 75th Tony Awards.
As of September 2022, A Strange Loop grossed approximately $14.2 million from 136,777 attendees across 157 performances.
A Strange Loop was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on May 4, 2020, making it notably the first musical written by a Black person to win the award, and the first to win without having a Broadway run at the time of the award.
The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical following its Broadway premiere in April 2022.
Jennifer Hudson, one of the producers of A Strange Loop, became the second Black woman to achieve the EGOT status with the show's Tony win.
The musical opened off-Broadway in 2019 and made its Broadway debut at the Lyceum Theatre in April 2022.