Today Lyrics
Today
[USHER]I am a Disney usher
I'm barely scraping by
My discontentment comes in many shapes and sizes
When?I?wake up each?morning
I tell myself to try
I tell?myself that I will make no compromises
Today...
A meeting with my landlord
Who makes me miss my train
And I smell awful cause there is no time to shower
I plaster on a smile
Pretend I have no brain
Make nice with asshole tourists hour after hour
Today...
Today, I plan to change my whole life forever
[THOUGHT, spoken]
Usher, surprise! How you doin'? It's your daily self-loathing! I had some time to kill, so I thought I'd stop by to remind you just how truly worthless you are!
[THOUGHT, spoken]
Hey Usher, how you doin'? It's your financial faggotry and ooh, child! Do you have a second to discuss this situation with Shitty Bank Student Loans?
[USHER]
Rewrite that shitty lyric
To make the ending land
Condense the repetition to its most essential
Define a formal structure
So people understand
Pull out the stops to show the story's full potential
Today...
Today, I plan to change this show for the better
[THOUGHT, spoken]
Usher? Hi, babe. I'm with corporate niggatry, just checking in to see if you were ready to invest in Cookie, Lucious, the Beyhive, the Stellar Awards, or Wakanda Forever so we can finally get you into something unapologetically black
[THOUGHT, spoken]
Usher, as supervisor of your sexual ambivalence, you can rest assured that I've sealed the gates of your body and mind so that nothing can get inside your shitty butthole until you give the word
[USHER]
I want to break the cycle
That's so ingrained in me
But change comes way too slow and I am in a hurry
There's all of this rejection
Which brings such misery
But with my white girl music, I drown out the flurry of
Today...
I am a Disney usher
I'm barely scraping by
My discontentment comes in many shapes and sizes
When I wake up each morning
I tell myself to try
I tell myself that I will make no compromises
So days like this just get me
I hate days like today
Days when I face myself, but see the same reflection
Someone who's stuck rewriting
And stuck in his own way
Someone who has to edit every imperfection
Today...
Today I plan to change myself-
[THOUGHT, spoken]
Okay, girl. Whatever
Song Overview

Song Credits
- Featured: Larry Owens (Usher), L Morgan Lee, John-Michael Lyles, John-Andrew Morrison, Antwayn Hopper, Jason Veasey, James Jackson Jr.
- Producers: Michael Croiter, Michael R. Jackson
- Composer & Lyricist: Michael R. Jackson
- Release Date: September 27, 2019
- Genre: Pop-Theatrical, Off-Broadway Musicals
- Label: Yellow Sound Label
- Distributor: TuneCore
- Language: English
- Album: A Strange Loop (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording)
- Track #: 2
- Length: 4:35
- Copyright © 2019 Yellow Sound Label • ? 2019 Michael R. Jackson & Yellow Sound Label
Song Meaning and Annotations

Today is Usher’s caffeine-spiked morning mantra—and, bluntly, the day’s first disappointment. In under five minutes the song ricochets from Broadway bounce to cabaret snark to hip-hop-adjacent spoken sneers, all while the protagonist folds playbills and folds in on himself. Think Stephen Sondheim humming along to Lizzo on the E train: slick, self-lacerating, oddly danceable.
The song text walks us through a breakfast buffet of micro-crises: a landlord’s ambush, a missed train, perfume of stale sweat, and the relentless warbling of tourists at the Circle of Life marquee. Over jaunty piano stabs and jittery handclaps, Usher swears he will “make no compromises.” The Thoughts, those Greek-chorus gremlins, crash the pep talk to jab at student loans, sexuality, and what they term “corporate niggatry.” It’s hilarious—until it’s too real.
Musically, Michael R. Jackson layers Tin Pan Alley chord changes with neo-soul chromaticism. The chorus word “Today” arrives on a bright major seventh that sounds hopeful, then slides sideways, implying that hope already has a bruise.
I am a Disney usher / I’m barely scraping by
Instant irony: the happiest place on earth meets the crankiest bank account on Seventh Avenue.
Rewrite that shitty lyric / To make the ending land
Meta theatre squared—Usher edits the very show we are watching, admitting that failure is woven into creation.
Verse 1
Usher’s morning chronicle—landlord, train, funk of the unshowered body—frames poverty as slapstick. The orchestra chugs like a subway car, cymbals hissing the DOORS CLOSING.
Chorus 1
The repeated cry “Today…” is both promise and threat. Each iteration lengthens the rest before the downbeat, mimicking the inhale before diving into cold water.
Verse 2 / Bridge
The Thoughts hijack the bridge with financial, racial, and sexual taunts. Harmonic minor chords creep under their spoken lines, landing on diminished intervals that feel like a bank statement printed in red ink.
Chorus 2
The promise is tweaked: “Today, I plan to change this show for the better.” Ambition migrates from personal salvation to artistic revision, suggesting that art might be easier to fix than life.
Outro
Usher loops back to the opening lines. The circle is intact; the change hasn’t come—yet the declaration itself is practice for tomorrow’s declaration. That’s the quiet joke: progress measured in rewrites.
In the wider context of A Strange Loop, Today functions as the traditional “I want” number—except the hero’s desire is so tangled that the song becomes an “I want, but also maybe I don’t, because wanting hurts” number. The effect is funny, bruised, and—because we all have a landlord, literal or psychic—brutally relatable.
Similar Songs

- “Waving Through a Window” – Dear Evan Hansen
Both protagonists feel invisible inside a bustling corporate-theatre machine—Evan under high-school fluorescents, Usher in a Disney house. Each song fuses pop hooks with theatrical storytelling, repeats a mantra (waving / today) as a cry for visibility, and escalates musically to mimic spiralling thoughts. - “I Hope I Get It” – A Chorus Line
A chorus of dancers begs for validation while counting steps; Usher begs for rent money while tearing tickets. The shared pulse of snare drum and snapping eighth notes captures the grind of showbiz survival. - “Nobody Needs to Know” – The Last Five Years
Jason Robert Brown’s tune and Jackson’s track both deploy conversational melody and confessional self-drag. Though Brown’s character hides infidelity and Jackson’s hides insecurity, each song is essentially an argument with oneself set to deceptively cheerful piano.
Questions and Answers

- What job is Usher holding during the song?
- He works as an usher at Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre—a survival gig that pays little and feeds his artistic frustration.
- Why do the Thoughts interrupt him?
- They personify self-hate, debt anxiety, sexual confusion, and commercial pressure. Their snarky asides externalise the mental noise that sabotages creative focus.
- Is “Today” genuinely optimistic?
- The piano may sparkle, but the optimism is aspirational. Each vow to change collides with a new excuse, mirroring the daily tug-of-war between ambition and fatigue.
- How does the music reinforce the lyric themes?
- Jackson uses sudden key shifts and patter sections to mimic thought-spirals. Bright tonic chords instantly darken with added sevenths whenever a Thought needles Usher.
- Where does the song sit in the show’s structure?
- Track 2, right after the frenetic overture “Intermission Song.” It plants the central question—can I rewrite myself?—before the plot multiplies that question into a labyrinth.
Awards and Chart Positions
- While Today did not chart individually, the parent musical won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical—accolades that retroactively crown every track, including this one.
Fan and Media Reactions
Theatre buffs cherish Today for its whip-smart humour and brutal relatability. A sampling of chatter:
“I’ve never felt so called out by a show tune in my life—my student loans started beat-boxing along.” @DebtFreeNever, Twitter
“Jackson turns procrastination into poetry. The line about ‘white girl music’ had our row howling.” @StageLeftSnob, Instagram
“Listening on repeat while I rewrite my thesis again—Usher is my spirit animal, and that’s mildly depressing.” @ProcrastinatePete, Reddit
“The Thoughts feel like every intrusive voice I’ve tried to meditate away. Five stars, cried anyway.” Amelia Mason, NPR Music
“If Sondheim had been born in 1980, this is the song he’d write to pay rent.” Darryl Reyes, Theatre Weekly