Reacting to A STRANGE LOOP! (NSFW)

[@MusicklyGifted]

Man I cried the first time I heard this show. This show was written for me. I hope to play a Usher one day.

[@MickeyJoTheatre]

I'm so glad you found this show and that it's able to speak to people so profoundly, I think it's such an important work that will hopefully have an extensive future life!

[@myco_chaotix]

"Periodically" makes me emotionally triggered in so many ways positive and negative, its my favorite song on the album next to "Inner White Girl". This musical doesnt get the virality that it deserves! They did an awesome Tiny Desk ayear ago from my comment (two years after your video being posted Mickey :) !). Mickey you are very cute and I enjoyed watching your reactions to this musical :) this one gives me chills anytime I listen to it (esp after seeing an illicit screen recording of the full production... alot of the songs make so much more sense once you see the blocking and set design).

[@JamesJacksonJr1]

Watching you listen to the album is such a beautiful thing.

[@ianchung5395]

Just booked tickets to see this at the Barbican next week. I cannot wait!! So excited! Quick update, enjoyed it so much booked more tickets on the train home! A must see show, catch it while it's playing at the Barbican!!

[@ntfc2]

Just saw the show at the Barbican. I really hope you will be reviewing it. Because it's...really something else

[@enric_ortuno]

I was coming to say the same... I saw it Tuesday and was blown away... I really hope we get a review

[@BakingItOnBroadway]

Saw a matinee at Playwrights Horizons and it was paralyzingly brilliant. Nothing beats sitting there at the end of "Precious Little Dream/AIDS Is..." and Usher shouting to his mom "You wanted a Gospel play, this is the only way *I* know how to do it." At that moment, 200 white theatergoers (all over 50 y.o.) collectively whispered "Wow." The show might not have been directly for them, but I knew none of them would forget it after that.

[@rahsaanparham3478]

Mickey: Perky Melody...i don’t trust it. Me: Smart man.

[@eirikastokes9652]

I just listened to this recording this morning and the sheer pain Inwood Daddy gave me is still RIGHT IN THE FRONT of my brain holy shit.

[@jackietchr09]

I taught in the part of manhattan called Inwood!! I saw the play last night. It’s brilliant. I had tickets before it won the Tony. It was amazing. Highly recommend it!!

[@jackietchr09]

I wanted to cry for Usher so many times while watching this play here in nyc last night. As a native Latina New Yorker, who also attended NYU undergrad and grad, I have met some “Ushers” at the end you are hopeful he will find himself! It was incredible, I loved it!! Recommend it!!

[@paulstrunk7735]

OMG... I love your reactions.I haven’t seen the show, but got the Cast Recording right after it won the Pulitzer. So, so, so good!

[@michaela3910]

Ok i know you posted this in 2020 but I am SO excited this show is now on Broadway!!!

[@theantwaynhopper]

MickeyJoTheatre...I literally somehow found this...your breakdown of this musical brought me to tears because you really reminded me of how much of a ONE IN A MILLION musical theme from a black prospective/antagonist who represents part of my community. I thank you for this beautiful review. Isn't it all a strange loop...the strange loop about life is IT ALL BEGINS AND ENDS WITH YOU AND YOUR THOUGHTS AND PROSPECTIVE ON LIFE. what a STRANGE LOOP life is...a process...really! GOD BLESS YOU AND US ALL: Love always, Your INWOOD DADDY/Thought6 💋❤💋❤💋❤💋❤💋❤💋 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[@justinnaniong7872]

I thought I commented on this video when I saw it six months ago. Oh well. Anyway, still obsessed with this cast album right now. Also, you really got one of the cast members to comment on your video so well done.

[@kodeispresser5307]

Saw the show on Broadway last week and it was INCREDIBLE!!!!

[@TheTheatreLounge]

Honestly, this show is amazing! I discovered it last month and been obsessed! Also, love finding new theatre youtubers!

[@MickeyJoTheatre]

Right?! This video was my first listen 2 weeks ago and I've listened to it hundreds of times since and become obsessed, I was just so shook initially! Just subscribed to your channel, gonna go binge some videos! 🤩

[@TheTheatreLounge]

@@MickeyJoTheatre Doing the same right now!!

[@minirth.maggie]

You are the most delightful man. I love your reactions to this.

[@alyzu4755]

My husband and I saw the touring production of this recently. It's an amazing show, but the sound was muddy and it was hard to understand all of the lyrics. Which is so frustrating because it's such an amazing and important piece of art. Thankfully there's the cast recrding.

[@mcslaggers4999]

LMAO everyone who listen to periodically vibes until the hear the lyrics

[@patchofpumpkins6768]

“This next song is calle- WRITING A GOSPEL PLAY WRITING A GOSPEL PLAY”

[@AnnaMWatch]

This is pretty much the exact reaction I had when I first heard this. The music is a total bop, but I feel like I'm missing so much of the story not seeing it live or seeing the dialogue (it's supposed to be incredibly meta, a show within a show within a show etc... but you don't really get that aspect of it just listening). Once theaters reopen in 2021, I really want to see this live. Also, I feel you so much on Inwood Daddy, that song takes a moment to process. The fact that Michael R. Jackson was able to write such a viscerally uncomfortable song that is both beautiful and absolutely terrifying is such a testament to his skills.

[@audreyblackwell8447]

Go see it. You won't be sorry it is just incredible.

[@gayleshupack3532]

At first I thought this was gonna be about Passing Strange, the only musical I ever walked out of on Broadway because it was so loud I was afraid it would blow out my eardrums.

[@timzgraggen98]

Great reaction to a great show. In case you aren’t already familiar with them some other shows you should check out are Floyd Collins, Fun Home and most especially Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (listen to original OFF-Broadway cast - think it’s a bit more raw and interesting)

[@BrendanClifford]

the off-broadway Great Comet also has the beautiful "Natasha Lost", which I really wish they'd not cut for broadway (honestly, find 3 minutes to cut/tighten elsewhere) ... but it doesn't have the also good "Dust and Ashes" added for Pierre (played by Groban) for Broadway. I agree Pierre needed another song, but I think musically and dramatically the score is stronger with "Natasha Lost" included!

[@BrendanClifford]

just addressing one thing you said in this video, regarding queers/gay men featured in musicals... the truth is, musicals have **not** "always featured a large proportion of gay men"... if anything queer people have been represented in plays for far longer and far more than in musicals. You have to wait a long time in the Broadway musical history before you get to any legit gay characters/stories (and i don't think the gay bar in Applause counts ;) ). **THIS IS A LONG COMMENT BUT FULL OF FUN HISTORY!** LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, the one you mentioned, wasn't until 1983 ... there are nearly 50 years of musicals before that with basically zero gay men or queer people of any gender (hell it's not even been 40 years since La Cage). In 1975 we get A CHORUS LINE, the first musical on Broadway of any note that prominently featured gay characters. But it's still mostly straight people, except for 3 major featured gay characters -- however there are no **songs** in the musical sung by the gay characters or focusing on a gay experience. Paul has the famous monologue and sections of "Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love" are given to the gays -- it's great, but it's not quite the be all and end all of gay representation in *musicals*. Also in 1975 Broadway briefly got and sadly ignored THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, it had a short run and wasn't a hit until the movie slowly become a cult hit -- this features a queer lead and supporting cast and has an iconically queer sensibility and perspective/story. But I don't think the stage show had nearly the reach that A Chorus Line did (though movie of Rocky Horror though is a queer touchstone and perhaps the first gay musical to be mainstream, if i'm not mistaken). So 1975 was the beginning. Some might cite CABARET (1966), but it can't be counted until its 1998 revival, because in the original the Emcee was more sexually neutral than fluid (like Alan Cumming's portrayal was) and there was no gay stuff originally in "Willkommen" or in "Two Ladies"... we can describe the Emcee of the original and the movie as a queer character and presence, and he is, but in those versions and even the revival version, he has no story of his own or scenes depicting his life ... and in the original, Cliff's sexuality is portrayed as straight, and even in the revival there are no songs sung by Cliff (his one big beautiful song from 1996, "Why Should I Wake Up", was cut for the revival) -- in the film he's actively bi, but again has no songs, though in the film that's because no one sings who isn't performing in the kit kat klub). Also prior to Chorus Line, is the 1970 musical COCO, which featured an apparently very gay rival of Chanel's played by René Auberjonois who won a Tony for it. But that musical (starring Katherine Hepburn and directed by ACL's Michael Bennett) was famously panned, ran nearly a year because of Hepburn and is never revived. Since the musical is mostly about Chanel, and as far as I know the script doesn't address or deal with the character being gay, and since no one knows this show or ever plays this role, I would not count this. So in the 70s we have A Chorus Line and Rocky Horror. In the 80s we have the ***major* breakthrough and Tony winning not that was LA CAGE, the leads being an openly gay couple and taking place half in their gay nightclub with a chorus of drag queens, but nothing else, at least on broadway. (the unknown prequel to Falsettos, "In Trousers", did play off-broadway in 1979, 1981, and 1985, but this hardly counts). It's not until the 1990s when we really started seeing gay characters and stories break huge ground in musicals -- in 1992 Broadway saw FALSETTOS (the first act being a one-act musical that premiered off-broadway back in 1981), which had gays *and* lesbians not just "being" gay, and not just being romantically gay, but sexually gay, and singing about all of these aspects (it is a musical, so if they don't sing it holds a bit less weight for me). In 1993 we got the sensational KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN with the central character/lead being gay (singing about all aspects, including gay sexual attraction) - but while it swept the Tonys and had a healthy run on bway, it didn't become a popular show to produce regionally or in schools. And then 1996 brought the real game changer, I think, RENT (which features gays *and* lesbians notably, both singing about life and sex). Off-broadway in the 90s we saw major queer-focused musicals like HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (1998), HELLO AGAIN (1994) and A NEW BRAIN (1998). And of course the CABARET REVIVAL (1998) was a huge Tony winner, and had a celebrated run of nearly 6 years until 2004, queerly bringing us into the 2000s. (fun notable: for a time in 1998, nyc enjoyed the queer musical fest of concurrently running productions of Rent, the Cabaret revival, Hedwig, and A New Brain!) In the 2000s it really changed ... we saw much more queer characters in musicals, specifically gays *and* lesbians -- starting off right in 2000 with Broadway's THE WILD PARTY, short-lived but brilliant and featuring both gay men and women, and then much bigger queer musical successes: like the 2004's hit AVENUE Q (though the gay puppets are secondary leads), and 2004's short-lived and never-performed-since TABOO (queers of all kinds) and BOY FROM OZ (gay lead) ... and you could say Noah in CAROLINE OR CHANGE is gay but there are just one or two references to his budding gayness, also 2004... AND in 2004 nyc got the off-broadway premiere of BARE featuring gay and lesbian teens... 2004 was a very gay year. The 2000s continued to bring some very major and key queer musicals, like THE COLOR PURPLE (2005) a lesbian story specifically (La Chanze won for Best Actress for the queer female lead role)... and one of the top queer musicals ever in 2014 with FUN HOME (Best Musical winner) which is a lesbian story represented with 3 actresses, with a gay man supporting story... (fun notable: as far as gay female representation, in 2016 Broadway had The Color Purple revival, Falsettos revival, and Fun Home running... and then The Prom just 2 years later. ***I'm by no means saying we've had a lot of lesbian representation, I'm saying we haven't had a ton of queer stories period, in the scope of all musicals or the known ones. And the world/landscape/culture of musicals on Broadway only just started to feel notably queer in the 2000s/2010s.***) The year before Fun Home, we got the smash 2013 hit and Best Musical winner KINKY BOOTS of course (also Best Actor winner for queer Billy Porter as the queer lead), and big shows with minor queer stories like SPRING AWAKENING (2007) or TITLE OF SHOW (2008) a tiny musical that made it to Broadway with 2 gay leads, and Best Musical winning hit BILLY ELLIOT (2009) with a possibly queer child central character and an openly queer featured character kid who has a whole number, ROAD SHOW (2008 off-broadway) with one gay lead and his romantic interest a main featured character, BOOK OF MORMON (2011) with a closeted mormon character who gets a song, IF/THEN (2014) with featured characters of a gay male couple and gay female couple, MEAN GIRLS (2018) with Damien as a big supporting role, and THE PROM (2019), a teen lesbian story (which got made into a major Netflix movie less than 2 years later). I don't think Michael in BE MORE CHILL (2019) is confirmed as gay but I know he counts to many. BUT... now that we look at them all, as many as there seem to be, there really aren't *that* many musicals about queer people, let alone commonly known musicals-- many of the ones I've mentioned aren't well known and didn't run long. But the point is that there are not that many, and many of the key ones feature gay women prominently (Falsettos, Rent, Bare, Rocky Horror perhaps) or focus mainly on gay women (Fun Home, The Color Purple, The Prom). The Top Tier list of queer musicals seems to be: A Chorus Line, The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show, La Cage Aux Folles, Falsettos, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Rent, Cabaret redux, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, A New Brain, Avenue Q, The Color Purple, Billy Elliot, Kinky Boots, Fun Home, The Prom, A Strange Loop. (maybe Road Show belongs in there with 2 major NYC productions and it being Sondheim? Maybe Bare and Taboo belong in there? Not sure, depends who you ask / maybe) Addendum: There are also key revivals in the 2000s & 2010s running alongside a few new musicals with queer narratives that may make it feel even more gay... hit revivals of Company running now with a major gay supporting character with a big song (but they were not gay in the original or ever prior), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014 Best Revival winner and toured a lot), and also in 2014 the queer-revised Cabaret revival was revival with Cumming again and high profile Sallys like Michelle Williams and Emma Stone, the iconic 2015 revival of The Color Purple with Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson as the lesbian characters (Best Revival winner), Falsettos (2016 and got a great pro-shot), Spring Awakening (2017), A Chorus Line (2007), La Cage Aux Folles (in 2005 *and* 2010, winning Best Revival both times), Rocky Horror Show (2001), Rent off-broadway in 2011 and the 2008 Broadway cast got a pro-shot released, A New Brain at Encores 2015 with Jonathan Groff, Road Show at Encores in 2019, etc. (and shows like Hair may appear to have gay male leads but those characters are not specified as queer to my memory). Don't let the recent flurry of gay musical activity fool you that there are so many. I'm sure leaving out many shows that feature queer character(s), I can already think of two, off-broadway's Zanna Don't (2002) and Yank (2005 - starring Bobby Steggart before he retired, which was planned for Broadway, directed by David Cromer I believe, but never came together). But I'm trying to focus on the ones that made a real dent and/or are famous/commonly known or get major productions.

[@kbye2321]

God, this comment is wonderful for a young theater gay like me! :D I’ve screenshotted this so it will stay with me forever if I need a list of stuff to explore and be entertained with. On that note, you mentioned that “queer people have been represented in plays for far longer and far more than in musicals.” I know it’s fruitless to ask a year old comment this but do you have a list of plays that have had queer representation? How did you get to know all this, coming from someone who knows much about theater?

[@Gnostic72]

Love following & watching your enlightened & entertaining commentary on Musical Theatre. I predict that STRANGE LOOP will win the bulk of the TONY’S this year. After it won A Drama Desk, Crotic’s Outer Circle, & Pulitzer Prize Awards. It garnered 11 Tony Award Nominations! Oh, & btw I can’t help but think that you remind me of Noah Galvin. (Ben Platt’s BF. Only handsomer.) Being a professional Actor myself (A.Chorus Line, Cinderella, Evita, Into The Woods, La Cage Aux Folles, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Peyer Pan, Sweeney Todd, etc. I am grateful for your insoghts, reviews, ooinions, take, critique of what’s current on Broadway & The West End. Miss the U.K.🇬🇧.

[@flannerymonaghan-morris1317]

Guess what???? This show won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year. And I’m not kidding either...

[@MickeyJoTheatre]

I know, that's how I came across it! I've looked into the show a lot more since this first listen and I'm completely fascinated by it, I'm sure the full production was outstanding!

[@flannerymonaghan-morris1317]

MickeyJoTheatre I’m sure that when this mess all ends and it is okay to go to the theatre again, we’ll probably get a second chance to see it. I bet the numbers are more impactful/great live than they are on the cast recording (which is almost always the case for musicals).

[@TezzaRES]

How much of this could you not put on KZbin? Can’t wait to put this on in the car 😂

[@MickeyJoTheatre]

A LOT! If it seems like I'm overreacting in the video, I'm not 😶

[@TezzaRES]

MickeyJoTheatre sounds like my kind of soundtrack 😅 a drive is definitely called for now

[@TezzaRES]

MickeyJoTheatre ok so listened all the way through... OMG it’s controversial, slightly shocked but I love it.

[@maryk3458]

I saw athe show in DC and loved it!

[@sesresu]

"That woman" is L Morgan Lee - check her out!!!!

[@MickeyJoTheatre]

Oh believe me I have LEARNED! She's phenomenal!

[@sesresu]

@@MickeyJoTheatre Did you see her at THE 22:33 minute mark in KINGS OF BROADWAY 2020? My favorite!

[@callalily3994]

If you haven't seen the Tiny Desk Concert for this show, it was posted a few days ago, and it's amazing. (Just search KZbin for Strange Loop Tiny Desk.)

[@fayewhitehead6312]

I have no idea what said strange loop is either. Do not worry.

[@animeotaku307]

It’s basically because the protagonist, a black gay man, is writing a musical about a black gay man writing a musical about... (so on).

[@fayewhitehead6312]

@@animeotaku307 oh nice.

[@evecohen6653]

I think the concept of a musical being “for” any group of people is problematic. Is “Fiddler on the Roof” “for” Jewish people because it portrays a specific Eastern European Jewish experience? Is “Chorus Line” only “for” dancers? I thought musicals were universal, or is that only when they’re written by and about White people? I’m not black, or gay, or a man, yet I found “A Strange Loop” powerful and moving and felt it really pushed the envelope of what a musical can express. I felt I got inside someone else’s skin and head just for a bit and understood them in a way I hadn’t before. Isn’t that really the point of theatre ? The show is really “for” anyone, perhaps even more for people who don’t think it’s “for” them.

[@markbeck8384]

I had never heard of this show before it opened on Broadway; it was fun to see your reactions to it. I was afraid that maybe it would be too Black for me; but, I figure, if it won a Pulitzer Prize, it must be more Universal. Certainly there are parts of it I would guess I would totally identify with. I will try to find a cast recording now, as it will probably be a while before I see it. I know you posted this a year ago, so I am feeling really behind. I enjoy your reviews.