History Theatre / AStrangeLoop

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Towards the end of "AIDS Is God's Punishment," Usher's mother shouts for the choir to stop, and she rushes to Usher to assure him that she loves him. Usher thinks she's finally had a breakthrough...only for her to ''agree'' with what the preacher said in the song. The whole point of the number was to be a satirical dig at gospel music and the notion that AIDS was a divine punishment, but Usher's mother takes it at face value and completely misses the actual meaning.

* WeightWoe: Usher is not just a Black gay man, he's a ''fat'' Black gay man, and his size is an important part of his identity and self-loathing. The fatphobia of the gay community in particular is put under attack, with Usher's also-gay doctor bullying him about his body and remarking that Usher won't be attractive unless he loses weight.

* CallingTheOldManOut: The climax of the play has Usher call out his parents' homophobia, venting about how he already suffers enough without them making him feel worse about himself. While he mostly just screams at his father, he creates an entire musical number calling out his mother by drawing attention to her religious fundamentalism.

The protagonist is Usher, a gay black man who works as, wait for it, an usher for the Broadway production of ''Theatre/TheLionKing''. (In theory at least, the entire play takes place during an intermission of ''The Lion King''). Usher is writing a play called ''A Strange Loop'', which is about...a gay black man named Usher, who works as an usher for ''The Lion King'', and is writing a play called ''A Strange Loop'', which is about a gay black man named Usher...

The play is about Usher's struggle to make it in musical theater and finish writing his show. He also has to deal with the problems of being a black man working in a white world (musical theater), a gay black man who can't stop himself from having degrading fetish sex with white men, and, most problematic, a gay black man with a very traditional family that includes parents that love Creator/TylerPerry and strongly disapprove of their son's homosexuality. The cast consists of Usher and six "Thoughts", who play many characters, including his parents, his agent, the white guy who invites Usher home for some demeaning sex, and a character referred to in the stage directions as "Usher's self-loathing."

* AuthorAvatar: Usher is basically a fictionalized version of Michael R. Jackson, a gay black man with two advanced arts degrees who works in musical theater. They even both share names with famous pop stars.

** Usher's mom disapproves of his taste in "white girl music" like Music/LizPhair, and is shocked at his dislike for Tyler Perry. Usher even has a whole dream sequence in which various black ancestors call him out for not being black enough while singing the praises of Tyler Perry.

* DrosteImage: The poster and cover for the script shows a black man whose body consists of theater curtains looking down, parting the curtains, and revealing inside the exact same image, of himself, parting the curtains and revealing the image again and again to infinity.

* FanDisservice: Usher has a fairly graphic onstage sex scene with a fairly attractive white[[note]]albeit played by a black Thought[[/note]] man, but rather than being arousing, it quickly turns traumatic as the man shouts horrific insults and slurs at Usher during penetration.

* {{Gayngst}}: A major theme of the show is Usher's identity as not just a gay man, but a fat black gay man. His Christian parents refuse to accept his sexuality and constantly hold the threat of AIDS over his head, as a close gay friend of the family had previously died of the disease; Usher eventually writes a gospel mocking their homophobia. Usher also doesn't have much of a sex life as others in the gay community reject him for being black and fat, and he feels ashamed that he's drawn to skinny white gay guys when deep down he'd rather love another black man. His low point is having sex with a married white man who degrades him and calls him racial slurs during sex.

* LyricalDissonance: Frequently invoked to sugarcoat the show's tougher themes. "AIDS is God's Punishment" is the biggest example -- since Usher's mother wanted Usher to write a gospel play so bad, he writes a song brutally detailing the stigma the church holds against gay black men, particularly when it comes to those with HIV/AIDS. This culminates in the gospel choir cheerfully singing the title lyric, even imploring the audience to clap along (ideally, the audience will be too uncomfortable to do so).

* ModernMinstrelsy: Discussed and parodied. Usher strongly dislikes Tyler Perry's plays for pandering to the lowest common denominator with exaggerated caricatures of black families. "Writing a Gospel Play" parodies this as Usher writes and acts out one of these shows, and the LargeHam comedy proves a strong contrast to Usher's more introspective, brutally honest work.

* NWordPrivileges: Thought 2, criticizing Usher's story, says "You can't say 'N' in a musical," because "white people are watching." Usher's black "ancestors" also call him the 'N' word to draw attention to how out-of-place he feels among other black people.

* TakeThatAudience: Usher and his Thoughts occasionally worry about the show alienating mainstream audiences, with the understanding that those demographics are likely watching the show. After Usher mentions that black pain is a lucrative way to get people to see a show, he gives an AsideGlance to the audience.