Michael R. Jackson is the creator of the Tony Award-winning musical 'A Strange Loop.' Now, the playwright is working on a new musical titled 'White Girl in Danger,' which makes its world premiere off-Broadway in the spring of 2023. Jackson joins Trending to talk all about his projects and career. 

Between Bells

'A Strange Loop' Creator Michael R. Jackson Talks New Musical 'White Girl in Danger'

we know it's been a challenging last two years for the theater community with broadway Reopening in september 2021? That following an 18 month shut shut down for Covid, But one play, right, it's been the most successful period of his life. We're talking about Michael R. Jackson, The Man Behind the Book, music and lyrics for the musical, A Strange Loop, which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and of course 2022 Tony award for best musical. And next year, Jackson sophomore outing A White Girl in Danger is set to make its premiere off broadway. Both shows Deal with themes of race, gender and representation. Yeah. And I got a chance to speak with Michael about the shows and a lot more. Check it out. Now, Michael, you spent 18 years working on a strange loop and now it will forever be known as the 2021, Tony winner for best musical. That is amazing news. But you know, the last couple of years have been pretty hard for a lot of people, but you soared to new heights. Can you maybe put into words what the last couple of bittersweet years has been like for you? Um just a lot of development, A lot of hard work, A lot of rewriting a lot of um, you know, just working in honing and refining the piece to try to make it be the best that it could be. Apparently I wanna Pulitzer and this now Tony. This is amazing as you had such success with it. But now take us through that Tony winning moment. I mean what was going through your mind when you found out you won? I think what was going through my mind was I can't believe this is happening, but it's happening. So I'm gonna go with it because everybody was so up off their feet and hearing and just the energy of that was just really disorienting and and in that moment I was like, oh gosh, I wish I had something I could read this moment. But you know, I think I got through it. Okay. You still did a great job, great representation. Well, how would you define a strange loop? Because in this musical, I mean, you take us through every emotion, we're laughing. We're crying. We're just in touch with our emotions and thinking of our inner child, how would you describe a strange loop? I would describe it as a self excavation. Um it's about a young fat black gay musical theater writer who works as an usher um at a broadway show who's writing a musical about a young fat black eight, you know, musical theater writer who works in a broadway show, who's writing a musical about a young fat black age musical theater writer who works in a broadway show and so on and so forth while, you know, cycling through all of his thoughts and feelings about various things in the world and in his life and um it's just a self inquiry. Now, do you think your next project, white girl in danger will be as deep thought provoking? You know, it will premiere off Broadway in the spring of 2023. What can audiences expect? White Girl? And Danger has some overlaps sort of uh structurally with a strange loop, but it's different content to some to a larger degree. And I but I do think that it will be thought provoking. I also think it will be like very, very entertaining. It's a different kind of show, it's a different kind of story um with different kinds of characters in it. Um and so I think audiences will will feel strongly about it one way or the other, let's put it that way. Even in a strange loop, you have a song called White Girls could do anything, or that's one of the lyrics and the song. So if you were a white girl and could do anything, what would that be? Probably? Um take a vacation already. But I don't know, like go I just I would just be myself like, that's what I would do, and that's what Inner White girl is about. Anyway, Okay, there you go, you're too busy working. You got all these hits, you got to come out with, you know, even I heard lin Manuel Miranda, he was talking about when he was 39 he said that he was glad that his mega success for him And didn't come until later in life for him and you're in your 40s now, you know, and you've spoken at length about how you've struggled through your twenties and it really helped shape who you are today and it helped shape your work. So do you think a strange loop or white girl in danger would have even been possible? Had you done it 20 years ago? I don't think so because, you know, as a writer, I'm also a rapid responder to the times in a way and I'm constantly processing my own thoughts and and also what I'm seeing in the world. And so I don't think that the culture was in a place where I was in my thought like there was a relationship between the culture and and my thought process and I just don't think that I would have even been in a space to have completed that these pieces to where I wanted them to go in order to have existed in that time period. And that makes me totally, you had to wait to society and that's what happened. But we'll have to wait until I was ready for it. But I have a relationship that is related to society, society and I think there were a lot of things that we're still, you know, germinating in both a strange and in white girl in danger and in society. And so those two things had to kind of move a little bit in tandem together uh or remove, you know parallel together and in order for me to finally get to a place where I can go, this is what it is and like and then hear it with the world. Well, thanks again to playwright Michael R. Jackson.