A Strange Loop: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

A Strange Loop: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Josh Rogosin | April 26, 2022

Rather than use the stage at Feinstein's/54 Below, the cast of A Strange Loop cram into a booth for their Tiny Desk (home) concert. The protagonist of the musical is an usher, so performing in the crowd makes sense. 54 Below played a pivotal role in the musical's rise when, in 2016, composer Michael R. Jackson performed a concert version for New Musicals at 54. Little did anyone know that the show would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020. The cast reunited at "Broadway's Supper Club" to sing a five-song medley led by the show's author to celebrate their opening at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway.

Jackson explains A Strange Loop is "a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show who is writing a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show... who is caught in a self-referential loop of his own self hatred." The ensemble of characters joining him are a collection of "fierce but completely obnoxious" "Thoughts" — literally billed in the show's Playbill as "Thoughts 1-6."

The show at the Lyceum clocks in at 100 minutes with no intermission. Even in this small, Tiny Desk (home) version it's easy to get caught up in Usher's whirlwind of emotions as he's tormented by his thoughts. One can only imagine sitting in a dark theater with a bunch of strangers, laughing and crying, spiraling out together on Usher's strange loop.

SET LIST

"Intermission Song"

"We Wanna Know"

"Inner White Girl"

"Periodically"

"Memory Song"

MUSIC AND LYRICS

Michael R. Jackson

CAST

Antwayn Hopper

James Jackson, Jr.

L Morgan Lee

John-Michael Lyles

John-Andrew Morrison

Jaquel Spivey

Jason Veasey

BAND

Rona Siddiqui: music direction, keys

Beth Callen: guitar

Ian Jesse: bass

Marques Walls: drums

CREDITS

Video by Magicshak Media

Camera Operators: Nick Shakra, Anton Ponomarev, Maksim Kataev

Audio: Amanda Raymond

Audio Mix: Josh Rogosin

Directed by Stephen Brackett

Produced by Lilly Claar

Hair & Makeup by Kirk Cambridge Del-Pesche, Dotty Petersen, Elias Prince

Special Thanks: Raja Feather Kelly, Cherie B. Tay, Barbara Whitman, Jimmy Wilson, Arnulfo Maldonado, Corey Umlauf, 321 Theatrical Management, Feinstein's/54 Below

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Josh Rogosin

Video Producer: Michael Zamora

Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin

Tiny Production Team: Bob Boilen, Bobby Carter, Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Ashley Pointer

Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins

Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#NPRMusic #TinyDesk #StrangeLoopBway