Theatre review: A Strange Loop

A Strange Loop comes to the Barbican bearing a Pulitzer, but it's OK - once every few years they give it to something that isn't just the first thing to ham-fistedly tackle whatever the controversial hot topic of the day is. Michael R. Jackson's musical does make a point of the fact that intersectionality is something all the stage producers are looking to capitalise on at the moment, but at least it does it in as knowingly tongue-in-cheek a way as it does most other things. The intersection in question is that between black and queer lives, as seen through Usher (Kyle Ramar Freeman,) an usher at the Broadway production of The Lion King who's trying to write a musical in his spare time. The title has a couple of highbrow origin references but essentially it's about the structure: A musical about a gay black man writing a musical about a gay black man writing a musical about a gay black man.

Theatre review: Be More Chill

Is any other country's art as disproportionately about High School as America's? You have to believe that all the angsty teens we've seen on stage and screen for decades aren't exaggerating, and it's an experience that really does scar everyone for life if so many people are willing to spend the rest of their lives telling stories about it. The dog-eats-dog race to be popular gets a sci-fi twist in Joe Iconis (music and lyrics) and Joe Tracz' (book) Be More Chill, which felt to me like an endearing mashup of Loserville and Little Shop of Horrors. Alarmingly skinny video game geek Jeremy (Scott Folan) seems happy enough with his status as a loser who'll come into his own when he gets to college, but when the bullying gets too much for him and even Christine (Miracle Chance,) the oddball girl he likes, falls for a jock (Miles Paloma,) Jeremy becomes desperate enough to try anything to become more popular.

Theatre review: Buyer & Cellar

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The Menier isn't inviting the critics in until Thursday; Stephen Brackett's production has previously played in the US.

In a rather awkward little prologue, Jonathan Tolins' Buyer & Cellar assures us that, should any notoriously litigious superstars be listening, the story is a complete fabrication. But it's inspired by a bizarre truth found in a coffee-table book Barbra Streisand published in 2010, effectively an ode to her own good taste in home furnishings. Among the many photos and informative paragraphs, is the fact that she's bought so much stuff over the years that she built a fake mall in her basement to store it. Tolins imagines it might be a lonely place to wander through on her own, and so comes up with Alex (Michael Urie.) Having been fired from Disneyland for threatening a child with a churro, the out-of-work actor is in need of a new job, and his experience of working in a demented kingdom of make-believe makes him ideal for what Streisand's housekeeper has in mind.