A Strange Loop Tickets

The award-winning A Strange Loop musical is making its U.K. debut this summer at the Barbican Theatre. Michael R. Jackson’s show, which won every Best Musical award in New York, will have a limited run in London. Book A Strange Loop tickets on TodayTix.

A Strange Loop follows Usher, a young, Black, gay musical theatre writer working on a show titled A Strange Loop. This musical-within-a-musical balances humor with headiness, probing complex topics like racism, sexuality, and HIV stigmatization while being sharply witty and uproariously fun. Tunes like “Memory Song” and “Exile in Gayville” feature catchy, heartfelt lyrics you won’t want to miss.

An instant phenomenon off and on Broadway, the musical received 11 Tony Award nominations and won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. The form-breaking show also received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. New York Theatre Guide praised A Strange Loop as “revolutionary” and “flawless,” and the New York Times went on to rave, “There is no measure of praise that could be too much.”

Don’t go in circles looking for seats to this hit show. Book tickets to A Strange Loop in London on Todaytix.

Assisted Performances

Touch Tours: Tuesday 4 July 6:30pm - 7pm, Thursday 3 August: 1pm - 1.30pm
Audio Described: Tue 4 July 8pm, Thu 3 August at 2.30pm
BSL Signed performances: Tue 11 July 8pm, Thu 17 August at 2.30pm
Captioned performances: Saturday 22 July 2.30pm, Wed 9 August at 8pm

A Strange Loop is a semi-autobiographical musical by Michael R. Jackson. The genre-bending musical-within-a-musical follows Usher, a self-loathing musical theatre writer who works as an usher at Broadway’s The Lion King.

A Strange Loop is full of loops and layers, and the cast comprises a Greek chorus of six Thoughts, representing Usher’s self-abating thought patterns. Usher is big, Black, and gay, and he struggles to find his place in the American theatre canon and the world at large, which shuns Black, queer people like him romantically, personally, and professionally.

A Strange Loop premiered off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2019, was staged in Washington, D.C., at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2020, and bowed at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre in 2021. The show’s longtime director, Stephen Brackett, returns to helm the London premiere at the Barbican Theatre.

This summer, don’t miss the opportunity to see this “‘slick, tuneful, irreverent, and funny” (Time Out) musical in London. A Strange Loop is a “one-of-a-kind masterpiece” (Vogue) that’s “dazzlingly clever” and “an absolute blast” (Financial Times).

What to Watch For:

• The musical’s title is a nod to both the cognitive science term and the Liz Phair song “Strange Loop.” (The song “Exile in Gayville” is also a riff on Phair’s “Exile in Guyville.”) Michael R. Jackson, as well as his derivative, Usher, are big fans of the songstress.
• Michael R. Jackson worked on A Strange Loop for nearly two decades. The project began in 2004 when Jackson wrote “Memory Song” as a student in New York University’s graduate musical theatre writing program.
• Like Usher, Michael R. Jackson worked as an usher for The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre.
• Keep an eye out for references to other famous musicals, like Company and The Color Purple, and “cameos” by Black pop culture icons including Whitney Houston and James Baldwin.
• Larry Owens, the Abbott Elementary star, originated the role of Usher off Broadway.
• Michael R. Jackson is the first Black musical writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A Strange Loop is one of 10 musicals to win the award; the others are Of Thee I Sing, South Pacific, Fiorello!, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, A Chorus Line, Sunday in the Park with George, Rent, Next to Normal, and Hamilton.