‘Funny Girl’ Broadway Review: She’s Back, Finally, and Very Different “His plays are worse for Black people than dia-f-ing-betes!” Usher shouts.
How resistant is Usher to writing a Tyler Perry gospel play for the chitlin circuit? The character is named Usher (which refers to the character’s job as an usher for a Disney musical on Broadway, not the famous singer), and everybody wants Usher to write something that is “unapologetically Black” or “about slavery or police violence so the allies in audience have something intersectional to hold onto.” Or better yet, Usher should ghostwrite a gospel play so that Tyler Perry can put his name on it. Jackson has described his musical as “not formally autobiographical,” but it is about a young man in a “fat, Black queer body” who’s trying to write a musical about his own life. Not since Seth Rogen skewered Kim Jung-un in “The Interview” has a living person been so thoroughly roasted for our consumption. The inspired leitmotif of Jackson’s musical is the creator of the “Madea” movies and several gospel plays. ‘Paradise Square’ Broadway Review: Call Her Madam, or Return of the Happy HookersĪlso prominent in the “Loop” stage directions is the name Tyler Perry.
