A Strange Loop - Barbican

Just to add a few of my thoughts about the show. I saw the Saturday matinee last week, which turned out to be Kyle Birch's last Usher as the cover before moving into the full time lead role. He was excellent.

I did take advantage of the ticket that toomasj kindly donated, which is just as well as my previously planned visit date got rather derailed (so please someone do claim the ticket I have available on the Noticeboard for tomorrow's performance).

About two hours before the show the Stalls were almost empty, but they had been filled by the time the show started. I presume this was the upper levels moving downstairs. I did move forward to the fifth row as there were still empty seats, which was a very good place to sit. My impression is that a lot of the audience didn't know what they had agreed to come to see. I do have a hard time with people who laugh at words like "fag" and "n*****" or want to clap along to the closing number (thankfully very few).

I don't really know the show, but the songs are quite catchy in their own right, and the plot is easy to follow. I was expecting something much more confused. The last 30 minutes are very strong. I can see why this won lots of awards. It's all very relevant to the current time. With that said, now I've seen this, I don't really feel that the impact will be as strong a second time and there's nothing that's really calling me back for a repeat viewing.

I went with four stars in the poll.

Highly doubt it.

Every time I’ve been it’s been full, but also mostly every time there were a good amount of seats free the day or two before.

I don’t see a transfer for this, and if there was an extension it would have been announced now, and even though they more or less fill the house, that’s only done in the last couple of days so there’s not enough demand for them to see a potential for extending.

When I was there, 2 people walked out in the middle of one of the songs.

They were sitting front row so the cast did their best to make it light-hearted.

I have been offered heavily discounted tickets a number of times. So can't see any likelihood of an extension.

Though with all those very famous and rich producers, they could bankroll it forever between them!

I enjoyed this musically - I keep getting hints of Carly Simon (perhaps it's the 'don't they, don't they, don't they'), but overall appreciated it more than truly enjoyed it.

I expected to be in for more of a brainteaser due to mentions of the 'strange loop' theory in publicity and reviews from when it opened in the USA - mentions of Escher and Mobius bands. So I thought we'd have strange loops of Usher walking out of a door and meeting himself, or looping/repeating scenes and conversations he's trapped in. Well, he is trapped, but it's done much more simply, naturalistically - and accessibly. The whole thing felt to me more like 'A Strange Frame' rather than 'Loop' - and I liked the way the set had a number of frames within frames, as well as frames containing 'boxed in' people that suggested the shape of phone screens when Usher looks at Grindr. Weirdly, 'Aspects Of Love' which I saw the night before, is more of a 'strange loop' with the red dress recurring across 3 generations, and people unwisely falling in love with a shadow of a former love they're still grasping for.

I could have done with more 'stage direction' lines from Usher when he was referring to the Usher he's writing into his musical, rather than his own real life. I love it in 'Kiss Of The Spiderwoman' when the cellmates 'film direct' by narrating screenplay scene setting. Was I just not keeping up when watching 'A Strange Loop' - or am I right that most of the time we're watching Usher, rather than the Usher inside the musical that he's writing? Perhaps only the Tyler Perry style gospel TV Drama felt like a written set-piece 'play within a play', plus the very extreme family had the volume on reality turned up to 11. Perhaps it's me and I needed to concentrate harder, but I think the 'Strange Loop' was a slightly pretentious sprinkling of 'weightiness' that isn't really seen through in the structuring of the piece - yet the show has enough emotional pull not to need it anyway.

It lost me with the vitriol aimed at Tyler Perry. The writer has every right, and it's useful, to call out what he sees as damaging depictions of Black life; but in the midst of a piece about finding yourself, and self-care, I found myself distracted by worrying about Tyler Perry. I've looked up his work since, and yes it looks broad, but I also read that he considered suicide a few times (before his success). Imagine knowing that your work is now lambasted and humiliated within a Pulitzer prize winning piece - that's tough. In his 40s Michael R Jackson is a bit old to be coming on like a finger wagging millennial who thinks they have to school the entire world. [Actually, I don't mean to slur Millennials - I learn far more from people younger than me these days]

Musically I enjoyed it a lot, and Kyle Birch was terrific, as were the whole cast.

Saw it this afternoon with Christopher who was brilliant. Though I do agree that he struggles vocally with high range shifts in certain songs, his mid tenor range is very strong and he nails Usher's characterisation, able to be hilarious in some moments (the one man gospel play scene) and devastating in others (his performance of Boundaries really choked me up).

Saw this Friday evening and definitely fun, filthy and very different!

Amazing vocals by all and loved the first 50 minutes then it felt like it went on a bit too long, maybe an "intermission" would help. Didn't help the show started late so we finished coming on to 10pm.

I'm glad I saw it after all the hype here and Broadway but very happy I only paid £10 thanks to the National Theatre Friday rush.

Saw this last night - I seem to have a theme of seeing things in the final week recently.

Went with my partner. I loved it and he (very strongly) hated it! That's personal tastes and opinions for you

It was really interesting to notice the different reactions through the audience at different parts. No applause for the AIDS song last night though moved on very quickly with the dialogue if anyone was on the verge of it.

I did think there were sound mix issues (hotly debated with my Partner if it was poor sound mix or poor diction...). Some really nice work achieved with the lighting. Kyle was brilliant and made me really feel for Usher. Overall, very pleased I saw this and if it has been earlier in the run I would have sorted a return visit (without the +1!).

I’m there for the final show tomorrow evening and honestly I’m gutted that it’s closing. I hope it lives on somehow at some point in the future.

Interested if it’s a muck up matinee tomorrow so if anyone is there please inform!

I went on Friday night and it was a blast aside from some bad behavior in the crowd.

It was astonishing how much better Kyle was after settling into the role a little.

This show has definitely jumped into my Top 10 shows of all-time and I am so sad this is probably it for it for a very long time, if in fact we ever see it again.

I hope all the cast go onto bigger and better things as each and every one of them is amazing!

I bought the text yesterday from the National so will be delving into that every time I need a chuckle.

Thank God it was filmed at the Barbican with original Kyle, so at least we have that to look forward to!

Most shows are professionally filmed these days. In fact that ones that aren't are in the minority.

It's just a matter of whether they're released commercially or not.