Critics who have reimagined their role as one mainly concerned with filling out intersectional bingo cards exploded with joy when they encountered Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop (at the Lyceum Theatre), for which the writer provided book, music, and lyrics. It’s too much to ask for Broadway reviewers to restrain themselves when offered a “fat, black, queer” protagonist, and restrain themselves they did not. A retiree meeting her newborn grandchildren could scarcely have reacted more joyfully than critics did to this work. (The Times: “There is no measure of praise that could be too much; after all, this is a show that allows a Black gay man to be vulnerable onstage without dismissing or fetishizing his trauma.”) The show captured the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 and the Tony for Best Musical in 2022.

People who actually have to pay for their tickets might wonder whether watching a “black gay man be vulnerable” is worth two hours of their time, much less the expense of a Broadway excursion, and the answer is: not really. A Strange Loop has a lot of heart, and the meek, roly-poly Jacquel Spivey is hard not to love in the semi-biographical role of Usher, a lonely theater nerd patrolling the aisles at The Lion King who dreams of creating his own show for Broadway. But the piece is essentially a puffed-up downtown cabaret act focused on one character, and, like most cabaret acts, it starts to wear