Friday, October 29, 2021
A STRANGE LOOP's Pre-Broadway Run Announces Cast Talkbacks, Accessibility Offerings & Pay What You Will Shows
www.broadwayworld.com: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will present the pre-Broadway engagement of A STRANGE LOOP, Michael R. Jackson's blistering, mind-blowing, Pulitzer-Prize winning musical. Directed by Stephen Brackett, choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, music directed by Rona Siddiqui, and produced in association with Playwrights Horizons and Page 73 Productions, A STRANGE LOOP runs November 22, 2021 through January 2, 2022.
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4 comments:
This is a really great show with amazing music and a compelling story. I am so glad that it is doing well and getting a pre-Broadway run. I am sure that this is just the next step to a full Broadway production. I really appreciate the pay what you will shows. I think that this type of show does call out to people who are not in your typical theater audience. Queer people of color (specifically black men) do not have a lot of representation on stage and would probably want to see this show. However, the cost of theater can be rather prohibitive, and limit shows like these from reaching their target audience. The “pay what you will” and discount options will go a long way in terms of allowing all kinds of folks a chance to see a great production. Hopefully, this becomes a new standard for new works going forward.
Accessibility in theatre has been talked about a lot, but here with the Off-Broadway premiere of A Strange Loop, it’s really being put into practice. There are a number of measures they’ve taken to make sure a much wider audience can participate and view the musical Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is presenting. First off, there’s the accessibility of the performances, with Open Captioned performances, ASL Interpreted Performances, and Audio Described performances. These special performances will assist the enjoyment of the theatre experience for anyone in the audience with impaired vision or hearing. Finally, Pay What You Will tickets will be available for every performance, allowing audience members who can’t afford a full-price ticket to attend anyways. These are all vital steps to making a show more accessible, and it’s good to see that A Strange Loop will be open to as wide a public as possible. Hopefully more shows will follow in its footsteps.
I wish this show had a longer run so I could potentially go see it. It sounds like a storyline worth seeing and I've heard that the music is quite good as well. I love the idea that it's kind of an autobiographical representation of the playwright writing a show about himself writing a show about himself writing a show about himself. It reminds me of the "to understand recursion you must first understand recursion" idea. My favorite part of the article by far was the accessibility efforts that are being made on this show. I've never been to a live performance, with the exception of Texas mega-churches, that took the time to have an ASL translator or live captions. I hope that shows like this start to set a precedent of accessibility on all live theatre performances. There are so many people who I'm sure would love to experience these incredible things we work so hard to create.
I haven’t heard of A Strange Loop until reading this article, but from what I read, this musical looks like an incredible step for the mainstream theatrical community. There are a few huge reasons I feel this way. The first is that this is an original story with real diversity. So often, it feels as though the productions that find success in New York are rehashed 80’s film classics and trope-y cash grabs. Even with an explosion in diversity on Broadway in recent years, original stories by and about Black people are far less prevalent than they should be. So I am thrilled to see a fully original work with a Black and queer lead. Additionally, the accessibility of this production is a huge step for an Broadway bound show. Too often, theaters shut out the audiences that most need a show with ridiculous ticket prices, and I’m glad that the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company is actively preventing that. I hope as this show hits Broadway, it’s commitment to accessibility is somehow able to continue.
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