From the Winner's Circle: A STRANGE LOOP Author Michael R. Jackson Talks LGBTQ+ Impact and More

A STRANGE LOOP composer and author, Michael R. Jackson, is the 2022 winner of Best Book of a Musical!

In his visit to the press room after his big win, Michael discussed his 20 year journey to the Tony Awards stage and the advice he would have for the struggling young composer he once was.

"I would tell him to relax, to have fun, and to save his money. [laughs]" he continued, "I would also tell him, 'You're okay, there's nothing wrong with you. You're anchovies and not everyone likes anchovies, until they do. Until they're in a dark night of the soul, then they're going to need that pizza at 2 o'clock in the morning and those anchovies are going to taste real good.'"

On the musical's impact and meaning to members of LGBTQ+ community who have found the show, Michael said, "It means a lot. Especially because when I started writing this piece, I was writing it for myself at a time when I thought no one could see me. And so that I was able to work on something over an almost twenty year period, and that a group of other people also felt that way and that we were able to take that story to the stage and then share it with audiences who also felt that way, to me it spoke to the power of art to bring people together and to let people in on a secret that we're not alone and that there's more that unites us than divides us."

Michael R. Jackson is one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2022. His Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle winning A Strange Loop (which had its 2019 world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) received 11 Tony nominations.

In addition to A Strange Loop, he also wrote book, music and lyrics for White Girl in Danger. Awards and associations include: a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, an Antonyo Award, a Fred Ebb Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship and he is an alum of Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group.