Today Lyrics - Strange Loop

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

1. “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.
2. “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.
3. “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