The Latest Breaking News from Michael R Jackson

‘They’re about the mess of being human’: how the mental health musical won over the West End

Jazz hands and big ballads are out and ‘writing about real emotions’ is in, as a new wave of musicals exploring body issues, bullying and queer identity hits the capital’s biggest stages. What’s behind this taste for introspection?

The Guardian - UK · May 24, 2024

Confronting the audience and breaking the fourth wall: why Black drama is getting meta

On stage and screen, self-referential dramas such as A Strange Loop and American Fiction are on the rise, with playful postmodernism a potent weapon in the fight against inequality

The Guardian - UK · May 6, 2024

OPINION - Crazy for You, Cherrelle Skeete and A Strange Loop: The Evening Standard Theatre Podcast

A love letter to old school American showbiz - we review Crazy for You, which is now on at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. This feet-tapping musical features the songs of George and Ira Gershwin, and it’s directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman.

Evening Standard · Jul 17, 2023

A Strange Loop at the Barbican review: a thrillingly strange, playful and hilarious new musical

Stuffed with catchy tunes, it’s messy, exhausting and spectacular

Evening Standard · Jun 29, 2023

A Strange Loop’s Michael R Jackson: ‘I wrote this show as a little lifeboat at a very uncertain time’

The creator of the multi-award winning Broadway show on being credited with reinventing the American musical, his run-in with Liz Phair and why he’s fed up with modern TV

Evening Standard · Jun 22, 2023

‘There will be sex!’ Inside A Strange Loop – the queer, Black Broadway megasmash now hitting Britain

The Pulitzer prize-winning musical shows the world what it’s like ‘to travel in a fat, Black queer body’. Writer Michael R Jackson, a former Lion King usher who based it on his life, relives his astounding success

The Guardian - UK · Jun 6, 2023

Review: ‘Fat Ham’ on Broadway is a juicy Shakespeare reinvention, with backyard mayhem and a barbecued ghost

NEW YORK — In playwright James Ijames’ eye-popping “Fat Ham,” a malcontent named Juicy, kinda like Hamlet, is chilling in his North Carolina backyard when his recently deceased dad exits the presumptive fires of hell and pops up out of his patio grill.

Chicago Tribune · Apr 14, 2023

Why the Tony triumph of ‘A Strange Loop’ is momentous for Broadway

Michael R. Jackson’s “A Strange Loop” received more Tony nominations than any other show in Broadway’s 2021-22 season, but Tony voters are a fickle lot. Recall what happened to Jeremy O. Harris’ “Slave Play” last year. Nominated for 12 awards, a record for a drama, the production went home empty-handed.

Los Angeles Times · Jun 13, 2022

Tony Moments: A Night for Broadway to Reclaim its Groove

Surely many in the audience were thinking it, but “Company” director Marianne Elliott said it most directly at Sunday's Tony awards: In the devastating two years since the pandemic hit, it “felt at times that live theater was endangered.” As in, the industry might never recover. The exuberant ceremony Sunday…

Asharq Al-Awsat · Jun 13, 2022

Tony Moments: A night for Broadway to reclaim its groove

Broadway has its groove back, said Tonys host Ariana DeBose at an exuberant ceremony seeking to illustrate just that sentiment

The Independent UK · Jun 13, 2022