At some point, if you are enthusiastically trying to get everyone you know in Los Angeles out to see “ A Strange Loop ” — and anyone who hasn’t should try to, as the production comes to aclose this weekend — you may realize that some of the things you’re touting about the show may be taken by folks you’re evangelizing as reasons not to go. Like, if I tell you that it’s kind of like “Inside Out,” but with a hard R rating, does that read as a recommendation? It should, but with all of the show’s conceits and wrinkles, it’s difficult to make “A Strange Loop” sounds as good on paper as it turns out to be in execution. I’ll admit that, before ever seeing it produced, I was thrown for a loop, no pun intended, upon looking at the cast list and realizing that Usher, the show’s protagonist, is the only fully human character in the entire 90 minutes, and every other actor in the musical dramedy is playing an idea or a memory in his head, with the rest of the ensemble identified as “Thought 1” through “Thought 6.
” But this was a very good omen: these supporting players aren’t just representing archetypes — they feel real-life enough that theguy who plays Thought 4 was nominated for a Tony. (That would be John-Andrew Morrison, the only member of the L.A.
cast who came west from the original 2022 Broadway production. More about him later.) Speaking of Tonys, “A Strange Loop” won a couple of the most prestigious ones, for best musical and bes.
