No one would be more surprised by the runaway success of Michael R. Jackson’s “A Strange Loop” than Usher, the self-doubting wannabe playwright whose self-referential struggle to pen a musical about a self-doubting wannabe playwright drives this wildly creative, emotionally raw, and very funny show.
OK, maybe that’s an overstatement: Usher’s hectoring chorus of “extremely obnoxious Thoughts,” a cast of six that embodies his sundry insecurities, would be pretty surprised too.
And why not? There aren’t many precedents for the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical, which is having its Boston premiere in a capable co-production by SpeakEasy Stage Company and Front Porch Arts Collective.
Nearly two decades in the making, “A Strange Loop” is not your typical Broadway show with a linear plot and a clear character arc. Instead, it follows the circular mental contortions of Usher (Kai Clifton), a Black, queer, overweight, sexually frustrated would-be artist who works as an usher at “The Lion King,” that paragon of Broadway success Usher both desires and despises.
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But as he works on his musical (also titled “A Strange Loop”), Usher is beset by an anxiety-inducing swarm of unwanted Thoughts (Grant Evan, Davron S. Monroe, Jonathan Melo, Aaron Michael Ray, De’Lon Grant, and Zion Middleton). They’re relentless, badgering, by turns hilarious, raunchy, and devastating.
Here’s Usher’s mother, pleading with him to give up “the homosexsh’alities” and write a “clean Tyler Perry-like gospel play.” There’s his daily self-loathing, who drops in to remind Usher “of just how truly worthless you are.” He is rejected by the Grindr crowd, sexually humiliated by a white boy in stars-and-bars boxers, and hungry for Black affection.
But is Usher Black enough? And what will white people think? Will they care? “I’m sorry but you can’t say ‘n’ in a musical,” says Thought 2 (Monroe). “White people are watching.” While Thought 4 (Ray) longs “for the days when musicals were quieter and more centered around the lives and concerns of civilized property-owning adults.”
Through it all, Usher nurses his uncertain masterpiece, spurred on by gleaming moments of clarity and fortified by the music of Liz Phair, Tori Amos, and Joni Mitchell, a conceptual triumvirate he calls his “inner white girl.”
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The show is not for the faint of heart. Usher warns up front that there will be plenty of what the Brits call buggery, a promise the show delivers on with some pretty spicy portrayals of gay sex.
During Sunday’s performance at the Calderwood Pavilion, Clifton played Usher as palpably uncomfortable as he seeks his place in the world. The actor showed great range in the lead role, presenting Usher as an awkward, ruthlessly sardonic, yet at times unspeakably vulnerable 25-year-old.
It was a powerful performance overall, though Clifton’s phrasing could have been more precise during some musical numbers. (Sunday’s performance also struggled with technical issues, and performers’ mics went out several times during the show.)
Ably directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent, the cast had terrific energy, moving through a series of rapid-fire costume changes as they exited and entered set designer Jon Savage’s simple but effective “Hollywood Squares”-like grid.
If Clifton’s performance is a marathon (he’s onstage for the entire 100-minute runtime), the rest of the cast performs a theatrical decathlon, portraying parents, would-be hook-ups, a feckless agent, gospel singers, and a host of others too numerous to mention.
Ray and Melo (Thought 3) are particularly strong, often funny as they move seamlessly between characters. Evan (Thought 1) offers some of the play’s rare moments of empathy, while a highlight for Monroe is his turn as Usher’s Truvada-prescribing doctor who urges more sex (“Oh, so you think you too good for HIV now!”). Grant (Thought 5) and Middleton (Thought 6) deliver two of the show’s most brutal episodes, leaving Usher (and the audience) searching for solid ground.
“A Strange Loop” takes its name from cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter’s theory of cyclical loops that return us again and again to the same place.
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Progress is an illusion, and Usher’s thoughts ask him throughout the play how it will end.
“What’s ‘A Strange Loop’ about, who is it for, and why does it need to be?” asks Thought 1, urging him to clarify the script “so the audience knows when they can go home.”
The answer is apparent by show’s end, even if Usher, in all his ambivalence, has yet to find home himself.
A STRANGE LOOP
Book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Choreography by Taavon Gamble. Musical direction by David Freeman Coleman. Co-production by SpeakEasy Stage Company and Front Porch Arts Collective. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. Through May 25. 617-933-8600, speakeasystage.com
Malcolm Gay can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @malcolmgay.