A Strange Loop
Closed 1h 45m
A Strange Loop
85

A Strange Loop NYC Reviews and Tickets

85%
(354 Ratings)
Positive
93%
Mixed
4%
Negative
3%
Members say
Ambitious, Absorbing, Clever, Great acting, Great singing

About the Show

Playwrights Horizons and Page 73's new musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons — not least of which, his own punishing thoughts — in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (354)

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115 Reviews | 35 Followers
100
Intelligent, Masterful, Great singing, Great writing, Great acting

See it if You have a brain. It's closed now but one of the most brilliant, smart and funny musicals ever created. Absolute masterpiece.

Don't see it if You don't like LGBTQIA or people of color's struggles.

52 Reviews | 45 Followers
100
Great singing, Great acting, Exquisite

See it if you have a heart and/or a soul.

Don't see it if you are a soul less lump.

Eug
191 Reviews | 31 Followers
100
Must see, Masterful, Great singing, Great writing, Edgy

See it if you’re prepared to be transported, inspired, awed & moved by the complexity and beauty of queer black storytelling & modern musical theatre.

Don't see it if you’re homophobic or racist.

137 Reviews | 122 Followers
100
Epic, Must see, Profound, Resonant, Thought-provoking

See it if you care about LGBT issues or issues of race; you like shows that don’t have cohesive plots but have important things to say.

Don't see it if the above is not true

419 Reviews | 52 Followers
100
Intelligent, Must see, Resonant, Relevant, Profound

See it if Hits all the right notes, Fabulous in story and execution. Raw and real. Great cast. This is (musical) theater. Nothing gratuitous.

Don't see it if Easily offended or insecure.

68 Reviews | 13 Followers
100
Raunchy, Refreshing, Must see, Dizzying

See it if Truly groundbreaking. Very entertaining. Mostly hilarious but also poignant and heavy with gay issues. Great writing and cast.

Don't see it if Explicit dialog but even conservatives and other homophobes should see it for educational purposes.

219 Reviews | 88 Followers
100
Must see, Great writing, Great acting, Exquisite, Absorbing

See it if You want to see one of the best musicals in NYC today. You are interested in honest, difficult, and beautiful theater.

Don't see it if You would be offended by graphic language, depiction/discussion of queer sex/themes. You are looking for something light or fluffy Read more

211 Reviews | 28 Followers
95
Refreshing, Intelligent, Great writing, Entertaining, Ambitious

See it if you’re open to new styles of theatre.

Don't see it if you’re expecting a traditional musical comedy, are bothered by intense language and situations.

Critic Reviews (24)

The New York Times
June 17th, 2019

"Whether you are delighted, appalled or annoyed by the resulting production — and the odds are you will experience all of these responses — you can’t deny that it is uncompromisingly, exactly what it claims to be. Directed with admirable clarity by Brackett, with fabulously inventive choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, 'A Strange Loop' is a self-portrait in an endless hall of mirrors that dares to forbid closure, escape or redemption to the artistically thwarted being at its center."
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Time Out New York
June 17th, 2019

"The first 20 minutes are an exhilarating cocktail of hilarious lyrical complexity and Owens’s Idina Menzel belt; even after the rage begins to mount, Jackson—abetted by a bravura ensemble and Brackett’s super direction—keeps extending what we can take with explosively funny asides. But 'A Strange Loop,' for all its mayhem, is basically a Passion play...Owens and Jackson take our hands and press them deep into the wound that the world has made: It stains us, but it stanches the blood."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
June 17th, 2019

"Jackson’s triumph with 'A Strange Loop' is that by diving into the excruciatingly personal, he finds the broadly human...If 'A Strange Loop' sometimes feels like an early play — like a writer trying to muscle through the 20s-dominating obsession with self so that he can break out and into the rest of the world and the rest of his work and life — it’s also rich with clever comedy and eviscerating honesty."
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Variety
June 17th, 2019

"Sometimes exhilarating, sometimes exasperating...The loops and hoops that Usher has to go through in the show’s final quarter become entangled with careening themes and repetition...Still, both Usher’s journey and Jackson’s show offer bracing insights into the endless strata of conflicts faced by those who are young, gifted and black — and so much more."
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The Observer
June 17th, 2019

"This show can’t decide whether to lead a revolution, sell out, or curl up in a ball hurling insults at a mirror. That’s the subversive, polymorphous genius of it...The seven-member cast is nothing short of heroic...Director Stephen Brackett brings it together with style and verve, immensely aided by Raja Feather Kelly’s seemingly bottomless bag of choreographic tricks."
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Theatermania
June 17th, 2019

"We get 100 uninterrupted minutes of the rawest, funniest, most uncomfortably honest musical you're likely to see all year...In Usher, Jackson has created a character that doesn't fit neatly into any tribe, which makes him that much more potent as a dramatic force...The result is a show that uses the language of musical theater to express ideas that have never been uttered in a musical."
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Lighting & Sound America
June 24th, 2019

"'A Strange Loop' takes a highly unpromising premise and spins it into something startlingly, brutally honest...I cannot think of any other play that has so uncompromisingly confronted the institutional homophobia found in many black churches; this alone makes 'A Strange Loop' one for the books...'A Strange Loop' is a cry from the heart, but not so raw that one wants to turn away. This is due no doubt in part to Stephen Brackett's crisp, fast-moving direction."
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Talkin' Broadway
June 17th, 2019

"But for a good stretch, Jackson keeps us engaged....Jackson's melodies fall easily on the ear, when they don't repeat themselves too much, and his lyrics are rather better than his music, when they don't repeat themselves too much...Jackson, in short, is lucky. Which isn't to say he lacks talent. 'A Strange Loop' shows promise, and one hopes that, having gotten this musical session on the couch out of his system, he'll next tackle something more far-reaching."
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