Just a quick warning before we start, this episode contains some adult themes and language.

The other day, I went to see what's considered to be the hottest musical on Broadway.

It's called A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson. It was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, and it

won two of them this month

in some of the most important categories.

Best New Musical and Best Book

for Michael's original script.

A strange loop is definitely out to push boundaries.

There's this one pretty unforgettable scene where the main character, he's black and gay,

and he's dressed up like a preacher, and he's leading the sermon on stage.

And it's got gospel music and the audience is invited to clap along.

But the sermon is really homophobic.

AIDS is God's punishment.

It's about how AIDS is a punishment for the sin of being gay.

It's very uncomfortable.

But the music is so catchy that when the audience is invited to clap along, a bunch of people did start clapping.

And the rest of us were looking around totally bewildered.

I asked Michael why he'd written it that way.

Yeah, so tell me about that because you kind of,

as an audience member, you turn around and you think, oh, I turned around and thought, wow, people are clapping. Yeah. And I, that's a thing. Well, they're invited to. And I invite the audience to

have an authentic response. If you don't feel comfortable clapping, you don't have to.

But if you want to clap along, you should.

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