The Pulitzer Won’t Change Playwright Michael R. Jackson
The cutting satire of his musical A Strange Loop took aim at Tyler Perry and religious homophobia. Now he’s the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
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Episode Notes
This week, host Isaac Butler traces the creative origins of Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning musical A Strange Loop. In the interview, Michael talks about his early songwriting efforts and the gradual process of turning a monologue about his experiences as a young, Black gay man into a one-man show and then turning that one-man show into a “proper musical.”
After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss Michael’s distinction between an autobiographical work and a self-referential work.
In Slate Plus, Michael talks about two celebrity encounters, one with Liz Phair, whose music inspired a lot of his work, and one with Tyler Perry, whose work was satirized ruthlessly in A Strange Loop.
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Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
