A STRANGE LOOP On Broadway - Reviews & News Thread- Page 14

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 9:57pm

AMNY is mixed/negative (though positive on Spivey):

Review | Musical theater as self-therapy in ‘A Strange Loop’

https://www.amny.com/entertainment/theater/review-musical-theater-as-self-therapy-in-a-strange-loop/

"In spite of inventive touches, satirical humor, fluid production values, and songs full of both spark and sensitivity, “A Strange Loop” ultimately falls victim to the perils of its own design, becoming so messy, whiny, confrontational, sexually explicit, and theoretical that it will probably turn off many theatergoers while invigorating and thrilling plenty of others."

Updated On: 4/26/22 at 09:57 PM

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 9:58pm

“it will probably turn off many theatergoers while invigorating and thrilling plenty of others.“

I mean.. he’s not wrong. We all knew this show would be polarizing. However, I don’t agree that it’s “messy” or “whiny”.

Updated On: 4/26/22 at 09:58 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:00pm

The Wrap is positive:

‘A Strange Loop’ Broadway Review: Michael R. Jackson’s Hilarious and Breathtaking New Musical

Jackson’s Pulitzer winner lands on Broadway with all its brilliance — and brilliant take-downs of Tyler Perry — blessedly intact

https://www.thewrap.com/a-strange-loop-broadway-review-michael-jackson/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:01pm

Deadline is positive:

‘A Strange Loop’ Broadway Review: Pulitzer-Winning Musical Ushers Newcomer Jaquel Spivey Into Spotlight

https://deadline.com/2022/04/a-strange-loop-broadway-review-1235009166/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:03pm

Variety is positive:

‘A Strange Loop’ Review: Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-Winning Broadway Musical Is an Unflinching Riot

https://variety.com/2022/legit/reviews/a-strange-loop-review-broadway-musical-1235241275/

"Subjectivity is conditional. We can only understand our own points of view in relation to the differences that separate us. If art often intends to complete the circle (“look at how these other people live!&rdquo, “A Strange Loop” unravels it down to the barest threads to ask who the hell we think we are. The new musical by Michael R. Jackson performs a phenomenal feat — it is both a raw and unflinching interrogation of identity and the most furiously entertaining show on Broadway."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:04pm

An A from Entertainment Weekly:

A Strange Loop review: Michael E. Jackson's ambitious, inspiring debut comes to Broadway

https://ew.com/theater/theater-reviews/a-strange-loop-review-michael-e-jackson/

[Rakesh Natarajan]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:04pm

NY Stage Review seems to be positive overall. They specifically praised Spivey:

"That’s partly because he’s intensely likeable, as embodied by Jaquel Spivey in his first professional gig out of college. Stepping into the acclaimed shoes of Larry Owens, who can be heard on the Off-Broadway cast album, Spivey takes command of the stage (and our hearts) and never lets go. He embodies all of Usher’s insecurities, while letting us glimpse the germ of self-actualization within."

and all of the thoughts:

What a marvelous ensemble director Stephen Brackett has marshalled, choreographed smoothly by Raja Feather Kelly in his Broadway bow. Each Thought/reality perception is a distinct type and master of accents, and they meld like an improv company that’s been working together for ages.

It feels unfair to single any out, and all get their moments to shine. But I was particularly taken by L Morgan Lee as the one sympathetic soul to come to Usher’s aid, funnily enough during intermission at Lion King. “Life your life and tell your story in exactly the same way: truthfully and without fear!,” she sings. “Despite those who wish you would disappear / Find joy inside your life while you’re still here.”

https://nystagereview.com/2022/04/26/a-strange-loop-the-is-have-it-in-a-remarkable-musical-achievement/

Updated On: 4/26/22 at 10:04 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:04pm

Rave from Theatrely:

A STRANGE LOOP, and a Glorious Catharsis — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/a-strange-loop-and-a-glorious-catharsis-review

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:06pm

Rave from Theatermania:

Review: A Strange Loop Champions the Individual in a Culture Obsessed With Group Identity

A new voice arrives on Broadway not a moment too soon.

https://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/review-a-strange-loop-michael-r-jackson-broadway_93704.html

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:07pm

Chicago Tribune is mixed to maybe positive-ish?:

Review: ‘A Strange Loop’ on Broadway is sexually explicit and deeply personal, a musical to push boundaries

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/broadway/ct-ent-broadway-review-strange-loop-20220427-ox6hm7mwfjesdnt226mxotmxwq-story.html

"

found “A Strange Loop” most interesting in its determination to take us inside Usher’s head and on his journey. It is less compelling toward the end when it dissolves into a parody of lower middle-class reality. It is enlightened in its understanding of a mother’s love, even in the face of disapproval, and in the notion of impostor syndrome, which so many people feel today. Its creator is too young to know that you worry less about sexual desire as you age, that you then tend to search for love over division and that you don’t so much want to be at the center of your own story anymore.

All of that is ahead for Jackson, a breakthrough talent, fast-tracked to the main stem. He’s a wonderful songwriter — his lyrics are rich, funny and, well, I’d write heartfelt if it were not such a cliché. You might want to go or wait for the next one from him.

But I’ll end with this: his stated aim in “A Strange Loop” is to amplify, with music and ideas, what it feels like to be a young, Black gay man in the creative melee of New York City, ever more removed from much of the rest of America. In that, he succeeds as no one has before."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:11pm

Mixed/Two-and-a-half stars from NY Post:

‘A Strange Loop’ review: Pain with a side of anguish on Broadway

https://nypost.com/2022/04/26/a-strange-loop-review-pain-with-a-side-of-anguish-on-broadway/

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:12pm

LA Times is a rave:

Review: Black, queer and laceratingly honest, ‘A Strange Loop’ liberates Broadway

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-04-26/review-a-strange-loop-michael-r-jackson-musical-broadway

"

The score is contemporary but in an eclectic Broadway fashion. What sets the show apart is the raw honesty of Jackson’s interrogation into his own marginalization. “A Strange Loop” derives its power from its fearless specificity.

In bearing witness to his own survival “in a world / that chews up and spits out / Black queers on the daily,” as the opening number puts it, Jackson liberates us from the homogeneity that deadens our theaters and leaves so many of us feeling alone. For those searching for reflections of themselves in culture, “A Strange Loop” offers the balm of community. Broadway has never felt so expansively welcoming."

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:13pm

I’m not a fan of how The Chicago tribune put sexually explicit in the title as if every song is about dicks. 

Updated On: 4/26/22 at 10:13 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:17pm

Oleksinski’s review is remarkably juvenile. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:22pm

Associated Press is a rave

Review: ‘A Strange Loop’ makes a remarkable Broadway debut

https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-reviews-arts-and-theater-plays-41ca03eba0c61af25b3e6f80daf7d811

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:22pm

YvanEhtNioj said: "I’m not a fan of how The Chicago tribune put sexually explicit in the title as if every song is about dicks."

You can take the critic out of the Midwest...

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:24pm

Kad said: "Oleksinski’s review is remarkably juvenile."

Forgive me if I myself sound juvenile by saying this, but based on his recent reviews I’m starting to get the vibe that he doesn’t like shows around a minority point of view. Maybe I’m reaching..

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:25pm

Daily Beast is a rave:

A Strange Loop’ Triumphs, Uncompromisingly, on Broadway

 

HIS WAY

The brilliant, Pulitzer-winning musical “A Strange Loop” is about big themes like racism and sexuality, and about not belonging—yet always searching, inquiring, and confronting.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-strange-loop-triumphs-uncompromisingly-on-broadway

 

[forfivemoreminutes]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:27pm

I'm fascinated by how many of these reviews are playing out the exact dynamic detailed in "Intermission Song":

If you can't please the Caucasians
You will never get the dough!
'Cause critics clinically deny us
Then deny implicit bias
With their vanity supported
By a system that's distorted
Watch them write you off as lazy
Not to mention, navel-gazey
Lacking both in craft and rigor
Cause you're just a ****ing nig-

Particularly the AMNY review calling the show "messy" and "whiny" and "confrontational [as if that's a negative thing]" and noting its "self-indulgence" - sounds a lot like the critics "deny[ing] implicit bias" while writing the show off as "navel-gazey, lacking in both craft and rigor." And the talking down to the Black dude who wrote a *Broadway musical* from the Chicago Tribune...seriously, telling a writer that they're "too young to know" about their own experience that they're writing about and that as they grow older they won't "so much want to be at the centre of [their] own story anymore"? Would this be said about a young straight white man writing about his life experiences? I think not! To say nothing of the New York Post review...life imitates art. What a strange loop.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:29pm

Probably to be expected (as much as the Post's review) but Queerty is positive:

Unapologetically big, Black and beautiful, ‘A Strange Loop’ has changed the face of Broadway

https://www.queerty.com/unapologetically-big-black-beautiful-strange-loop-changed-face-broadway-20220426

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:29pm

Oh that’s a very, very good point. A Strange loop indeed..

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:30pm

YvanEhtNioj said: "Kad said: "Oleksinski’s review is remarkably juvenile."

Forgive me if I myself sound juvenile by saying this, but based on his recent reviews I’m starting to get the vibe that he doesn’t like shows around a minority point of view. Maybe I’m reaching.."

He writes for the Post, so it's really not that much of a reach.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:31pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Maya Phillips:

‘A Strange Loop’ Review: A Dazzling Ride on a Mental Merry-Go-Round

Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning meta musical arrives on Broadway with its uproarious dialogue, complex psychology and eclectic score.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/theater/a-strange-loop-review-broadway.html

"The tricky task I face as a critic is figuring out how to write about a work whose brilliance has already been noted. The New York Times named the show a critic’s pick in 2019, and I wrote briefly about the show’s Broadway tryout in Washington, D.C., this fall. It’s already won the Pulitzer.

And yet, it seems as if there is no measure of praise that could be too much; after all, this is a show that allows a Black gay man to be vulnerable onstage without dismissing or fetishizing his trauma, desires and creative ambitions. Now that’s some radical theater."

Updated On: 4/26/22 at 10:31 PM

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:32pm

BJR said: "Had another friend see it and say he couldn't understand a single word of Exile in Gayville. Makes me concerned the show is still having Sound issues and is opening..."

I saw it at Playwrights and had zero issues with the sound. But then I also saw Caroline, or Change three times and found the sound weird in the mezzanine. When I finally saw it from the orchestra, it sounded more natural but then certain moments weren't as big. Something was making the sound more resonant in the mezz but then there were moments when it distinctly felt like someone was whispering from behind me. 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/26/22 at 10:33pm

Critic's Pick from Maya Phillips:

"A Dazzling Ride on a Mental Merry-Go-Round

Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning meta musical arrives on Broadway with its uproarious dialogue, complex psychology and eclectic score."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/theater/a-strange-loop-review-broadway.html