No. 14. “Inner White Girl” (A Strange Loop, 2022)

By Michael R. Jackson (music, lyrics, and book)

A Strange Loop is certainly more uncompromising in its positions, brutally honest in its self reflection, and explicit in sexual politics than any musical on Broadway. While we may need to let history play out to determine if that truly makes …Loop a Turning Point™, in many ways, the show is in conversation with our previous Turning Points™ (beyond literally taking place at one).

• Like Little Johnny Jones, …Loop is the work of a single composter/lyricist/playwright. But while Cohan is always Broadway’s (and America’s) biggest cheerleader, Michael R. Jackson is much more critical about both.

• “Inner White Girl” comes at a similar point in the show as “Old Man River” does in Show Boat, and both are one man’s aria about life as a black man in America. But “Inner White Girl” incorporates a century of additional history, philosophy, and discourse (and is actually written by a black American.)

• Like Cabaret, …Loop uses musical conventions to hold a mirror up to society.

• Like Hair and Rent, …Loop reflects the anger and resistance of a specific political moment.

• …Loop was developed through many workshops and an off-Broadway outing, like A Chorus Line. It also is a product of the Musical Theater Graduate Writing Program at NYU, which created a new pathway for developing artists.

  
  

The most enduring part of its legacy might be its gaggle of celebrity-producers. Hollywood folks joining producing teams is not new, but with A Strange Loop, it felt like a bid of genuine support for the piece, as opposed to a sound investment. And when co-Producer Jennifer Hudson got to put the T on her EGOT when …Loop won Best Musical, you have to think a lot of people with big EGOs started making calls to see what shows they could get in on.

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