Biography
Working as a composer, lyricist, and playwright, Michael R. Jackson initiated partnerships on musical theater endeavors during his student years at New York University in the middle of the 2000s. His original musical A Strange Loop received its world premiere in 2019, accompanied by the release of the cast album.
Detroit was the city where Jackson grew up, and he completed his secondary education at Cass Technical High School alongside future playwright and actress Dominique Morisseau. He later obtained a B.F.A. in playwriting together with an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. One of his first projects paired him with composer Rachel Peters on the book and lyrics for the musical Only Children. Named a Dramatist Guild fellow for 2016-2017, Jackson received the Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and the ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award in 2017. March 2019 brought him a Whiting Award for drama.
Although A Strange Loop is not presented as strictly autobiographical, the story follows a young Black gay writer balancing the demands of writing a musical against an unwanted day job. Jackson supplied the book, music, and lyrics for the work, which began its off-Broadway run in June 2019. In the same year he joined composer Anna K. Jacobs on Teeth, an adaptation of the 2007 indie horror film that was presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals.
Detroit was the city where Jackson grew up, and he completed his secondary education at Cass Technical High School alongside future playwright and actress Dominique Morisseau. He later obtained a B.F.A. in playwriting together with an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. One of his first projects paired him with composer Rachel Peters on the book and lyrics for the musical Only Children. Named a Dramatist Guild fellow for 2016-2017, Jackson received the Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and the ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award in 2017. March 2019 brought him a Whiting Award for drama.
Although A Strange Loop is not presented as strictly autobiographical, the story follows a young Black gay writer balancing the demands of writing a musical against an unwanted day job. Jackson supplied the book, music, and lyrics for the work, which began its off-Broadway run in June 2019. In the same year he joined composer Anna K. Jacobs on Teeth, an adaptation of the 2007 indie horror film that was presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals.
Albums
Singles
