Michael R. Jackson's Musical A Strange Loop Wins 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama has been awarded to Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, which made its world premiere off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2019. A Strange Loop marks Jackson's first Pulitzer win; he will receive a prize of $15,000.
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is presented to a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life. The 2020 Pulitzer finalists are Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning and David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's Soft Power.
A Strange Loop, which Jackson began writing in 2001, explores the thoughts of Usher (played off-Broadway by Lucille Lortel Award winner Larry Owens), a black, queer writer working as a Broadway usher while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer working as a Broadway usher while writing his original musical.
After premiering at Playwrights Horizons, it was announced that Jackson's musical would play a fall 2020 engagement at Washington, D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre with the hope of a move to Broadway. Directed by Stephen Brackett (Be More Chill) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly (Fairview), A Strange Loop's off-Broadway cast included Owens, Lucille Lortel Award winner John-Andrew Morrison, Antwayn Hopper, James Jackson Jr., L. Morgan Lee, John-Michael Lyles and Jason Veasey.
Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theater Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He penned lyrics and co-wrote the book for the musical adaptation of the 2007 horror film Teeth with composer and co-bookwriter Anna K. Jacobs. He also wrote the book, music and lyrics for the musical White Girl In Danger. In 2017, he received a Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theatre Wing and was one of 11 winners of the 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. He was also a Sundance Theatre Institute Composer Fellow and a 2016-2017 Dramatist Guild Fellow. In 2019, he received a Whiting Award for drama and a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. Jackson's 2019 song cycle The Kids on the Lawn was published in The New York Times Magazine's culture issue, which was organized around the theme "America 2024."
It's not often that the Pulitzer Prize for Drama goes to a musical. A Strange Loop joins other musical Pulitzer winners Hamilton, Rent, Next to Normal, Sunday in the Park with George, Fiorello, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Of Thee I Sing, South Pacific and A Chorus Line.