Jason Veasey, James Jackson, Jr., Jaquel Spivey, L. Morgan Lee and Antwayn Hopper during a performance of "A Strange Loop" in New York.Polk & Co.
A Strange Loop, the boldest Tony Award-winning musical of the 21st century, is set to have its Canadian premiere in Toronto in 2025.
On Tuesday, Musical Stage Company will announce it is producing composer-lyricist Michael R. Jackson’s big, Black and queer American Broadway show (as the opening number goes) in partnership with Soulpepper and Crow’s Theatre from April 22 to June 1 next year at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
Ray Hogg, Musical Stage Company’s artistic director, looped together this grand coalition of theatre companies for what will be a $1-million production of the 2022 Tony winner for best musical.
“I haven’t been this changed by a piece of theatre since I was a child,” says Hogg, who shared the news with The Globe and Mail in advance of a release going out. “We didn’t want to do the shoestring version.”
A Strange Loop, one of the rare musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, is about Usher – a big, Black gay composer/lyricist who is working as an usher at The Lion King on Broadway as he writes a musical about a big, Black gay composer/lyricist that he hopes will one day open on Broadway.
This main character is joined on stage by six “Thoughts,” who represent all the directions his mind goes in at once – and also play all the other characters.
Jackson’s show has a fascinating structure and score that mimics how our brains can spiral. It is highly sophisticated in how it tackles modern identity politics, both in its embrace of them and in questioning their limits.
But what truly distinguishes A Strange Loop as a piece of art is how it gradually strips down to astonishing truth-telling – about sex, about family, about shame. It makes so many plays, not just musicals, seem phony by contrast.
“It’s just a nakedly honest telling of a fat, Black gay man trying to find himself,” Hogg says.
This is subject matter that the Musical Stage Company artistic director connects with personally – and felt the strong need to share in Toronto upon being “transfixed” by the show in New York. “I’m a fat man, I’m a Black man, I’m a gay man. And, at the risk of sounding incendiary, I’ll say the structures of society hate those things.”
But Hogg also shares how after watching A Strange Loop with Musical Stage Company’s co-executive directors Kate Supleve, a white woman, and Paul Beauchamp, a gay white man, all three started talking about how they had felt seen by the musical and saw their experiences captured in it.
“Like all great musicals for me, it dives deeply into one idea, one culture, one experience, and by being so narrow unlocks this great universal thing,” Hogg says. (As the not particularly queer, white male theatre critic writing this newsletter, I can attest to that, having been bowled over by the show in New York myself.)
The Tony Awards, which announced their 2024 nominations today, have, in recent years, honoured less spectacular, more creative musicals appearing on Broadway – which has made the not-for-profit Musical Stage Company more crucial than ever in simply keeping Toronto audiences up to date with the form.
A Strange Loop (and last year’s winner Kimberly Akimbo) are shows less likely to be given commercial premieres by Mirvish Productions – which has become so skeptical of new Broadway fare that its next major Canadian production, opening in the fall, with be its second sit-down of 1997′s The Lion King.
”I hope there’s some cross-promotional opportunities!” Hogg half-jokes.
Tony noms
The 2024 Tony Award nominations were announced today – and, in addition to being a big day for best actress nominee Rachel McAdams, it’s a big one for Canadian choreographers, as four have been nominated.
Jesse Robb, whose credits in his native Canada include choreographing Spamalot at the Stratford Festival last season, and Shana Carroll, the co-founder of Quebec circus troupe Les 7 Doigts, are co-nominated for best choreography for their work on the new musical Water for Elephants, while brothers Rick and Jeff Kuperman are co-nominated for their work on new musical The Outsiders.
These two teams will be competing against Camille A. Brown (Hell’s Kitchen), Annie-B Parson (Here Lies Love) and Justin Peck (Illinoise) at the Tony ceremony on June 16.
Meanwhile, Will Butler, an ex-member of Arcade Fire who certainly knew when to make his exit, also has a pair of nominations: He’s up for original score for the songs he wrote for David Adjmi’s play Stereophonic, and nominated with Justin Craig for best orchestrations of those songs.
Three opening this week
Middle Raged, a midlife-themed sketch-comedy show performed by Canadian comedy vets Geri Hall (One More Time) and Gary Pearson (co-creator of Sunnyside), hits the CAA Theatre in Toronto this week. Three shows, May 3 and 4.
Theatre Direct’s Forward March Festival is a free, two-day event with shows aimed at kids aged seven to 12. It takes place on the weekend in Toronto at George Chuvalo Neighbourhood Centre from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Homecoming, a new play by Kamila Sediego, is set in the Philippines and Canada and tells the story of three generations of Filipina women. The world-premiere production from Urban Ink is at the Cultch in Vancouver from May 2 to 12.
J. Kelly Nestruck