Theater’s an old dog it’s often hard to teach new tricks.”Īfter the run, Whitman takes Jackson and Brackett out to dinner, where she pops the question every playwright dreams of hearing: “Do we want to try for Broadway?” You already know Jackson’s answer. But that’s also what makes it harder for works like A Strange Loop to find their home. He now has a theory why the musical took so long to get produced: “Its strength is that you see the play and say, I’ve never seen anything like this. Adam Greenfield, who now runs Playwrights Horizons but at the time was the associate artistic director, recalls seeing the first run-through of the show - finally fully realized onstage - alongside Whitman. The show debuts at Playwrights Horizons, produced in association with from, another Off Broadway producer.
Instead of listing tourist complaints, “Intermission Song” now introduces the Thoughts and Usher’s central dilemma: how to write a musical, but not just any musical: a - well, you know. “Why not just say what it is that we’re doing? If we’re making a big, Black, and queer-ass American Broadway show, we should say it.” Upstate, Jackson presents a completely rewritten “Intermission Song” that blows Brackett and Kelly away. Kelly can’t remember who first said the instantly memorable phrase “big, Black, and queer-ass American Broadway show,” which is now the de facto tagline for the show, “but when they did, it was like, Isn’t that then what we should be saying?” says Kelly. A Strange Loop’s opening number, “Intermission Song,” set at a performance of The Lion King, had Usher dealing with annoying patrons and their myriad complaints: Someone spilled Sprite on their baby, the seats were too small, and “I can’t find my brand-new American Girl Place doll!”
Kelly has an important conversation with Jackson, questioning the opening number of the show, which to him made no sense. Jackson goes on a retreat in the Catskills with Brackett and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly. He tosses his Phair mash-ups but preserves her influence throughout A Strange Loop one song, “Inner White Girl,” references Phair’s “ Perfect World” in the lyric “They get to be cool, tall, vulnerable, and luscious.” I wrote my own and you should do the same,” Jackson recalls her saying. I didn’t use the Rolling Stones’s songs to do Exile in Guyville. In real life, Jackson is also trying to get Phair to say yes to his musical.
The story is now about Usher trying to write a musical and get the rights to Phair’s songs its score is a mash-up of Jackson’s songs and Phair’s. , as well as Douglas Hofstadter’s concept of a strange loop. By 2010, Jackson has retitled the show A Strange Loop, inspired by the final track on Liz Phair’s 1993 debut, Exile in Guyville, itself a response to the 1972 Rolling Stones album Exile on Main St. He scraps all of “Why I Can’t Get Work” the main character is renamed Usher. Reese’s Book Club has selected The Club by Ellery Lloyd, which is a murder mystery set in the exclusive world of celebrity clubs.From 2007 to 2011, Jackson turns Fast Food Town into a concept musical in the vein of Company and Passing Strange. The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members’ clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media. The most spectacular of all is Island Home-a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast-and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.īut behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group’s CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide-and that’s before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island.Īs tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.īecause at this club, if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out. Initial thoughts: On the surface, that sounds interesting. Also, there’s probably some irony there that a celebrity picks a book about celebrities. But to be honest, I’m not super excited as I’m concerned it might get into ridiculous psychological thriller arena. Don’t get me wrong, some psychological thrillers are good but many are repetitive. That said, I’m still going to read it as I did recently receive an ARC. To support local bookstores, order on Bookshop here.
While Reese selects all kinds of genres, Jenna from the Today Show tends to stick with literary fiction.