‘A Strange Loop’ makes history at Tonys

"A Strange Loop," an irreverent, sexually frank work about Blackness and queerness took home the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on June 12, as voters celebrated Broadway's most racially diverse season by choosing an envelope-pushing Black voice.

Michael R. Jackson's 2020 Pulitzer Prize drama winner is a theater meta-journey, a tuneful show about a Black gay man writing a show about a Black gay man. Jackson also won for best book. Many of the night's other Tonys were spread over several productions.

The victory of a smaller, more offbeat musical against more commercial offerings continues a recent trend, as when the intimate musical "The Band's Visit" beat the big brand-musicals "Frozen," "Mean Girls" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" in 2018 or when "Hadestown" bested "Tootsie," "Beetlejuice" and "Ain't Too Proud" a year later.

"A Strange Loop" beat "MJ," a bio musical of the King of Pop's biggest hits, for the top prize, although the other Jackson musical nabbed four Tony Awards including for best choreography. Myles Frost moonwalked away with the award for best lead actor in a musical for playing Michael Jackson, becoming the youngest solo winner in that category.

"MJ" represents the 22-year-old Frost's Broadway debut as he plays Jackson with a high, whispery voice, a Lady Diana-like coquettishness and a fierce embrace of Jackson's iconic dancing and singing style.

"Heal the world," Frost said from the stage, channeling Jackson.

Joaquina Kalukango won the Tony for best leading actress in a musical for her work in "Paradise Square," a show about Irish immigrants and Black Americans jostling to survive in New York City around the time of the Civil War. Earlier in the night, she blew the house down with a stunning...

Continue reading on: