The acclaimed musical by Michael R. Jackson that took Broadway by storm last year, A Strange Loop, will be coming to San Francisco next season directly from engagements on Broadway and London's West End.
When the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced its 2023-24 season earlier this year, it left a few gaps to fill, and we now know that one of them, next spring, will be taken by a four-week run of 2022's Tony-winning musical, A Strange Loop. Described as "the big, Black, and queer-ass Great American Musical for all," and a "blisteringly funny work of art exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he both loves and loathes," Jackson's personal and original work will likely find plenty of love in SF.
The show also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and it was named Best Musical last year by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, and the Outer Critics Circle.
It will play from April 18 to May 12 at A.C.T.'s Toni Rembe Theater, with the first several performances being previews — and it comes to SF with its Broadway director and choreographer. Tickets are currently only available to A.C.T. subscribers, and you can subscribe here.
"I feel so fortunate to have seen Michael R. Jackson’s big-time, award-winning, deeply personal, provocative, funny, hummable spectacle of a show twice already," says A.C.T. Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon. "This is a world that stays with you; you’ll want to come back a second time and bring friends. A.C.T. is proud to give a platform to this amazing musical theater artist, and to welcome original Broadway director Stephen Brackett and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly to the Toni Rembe Theater.”
And A.C.T. Executive Director Jennifer Bielstein says, "We look forward to welcoming audiences to one of the most ambitious and exciting seasons in A.C.T.’s history."
Here's the official synopsis of A Strange Loop: "Meet Usher: a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer... Hell-bent on breaking free of his own self-perception, Usher wrestles with the thoughts in his head, brought to life on stage by a hilarious, straight-shooting ensemble."
The lead sponsor of the SF production is Gilead, and it's also being made possibly by grants from San Francisco Grants for the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.
Other shows in the 2023-2024 season at A.C.T. include the world premiere of The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, Big Data by playwright Kate Attwell, and, next spring, The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes.
