Intermission Song

[THOUGHTS, VARIOUSLY]
Usher! Usher! Usher!

[USHER, spoken]
Can I really write this?

[THOUGHTS]
How many minutes 'til the end of intermission?
Is that how the show should open?
Should there even be a show?
No, it should it start with what he’s thinking
Which is just a cursor blinking
Cause of all of the directions
That the narrative could go!

[USHER]
He wants to show what it's like to live up here
And travel the world in a fat, Black, queer body

[THOUGHTS]
How many minutes 'til the end of intermission?
No one cares about a writer
Who is struggling to write!
They’ll say it's way too repetitious
And so overly ambitious
Which, of course, makеs them suspicious
That you think you're fucking white!

[USHER]
Hе has to fight for his right to live in a world
That chews up and spits out Black queers on the daily

[THOUGHTS]
Blackness, queerness, fighting back to fill this cis-het, all-white space
With a portrait of a portrait of a portrait of a Black, queer face
And a choir full of Black, queer voices, treble clef (and also bass!)
That are casting spells to conjure up a -

[USHER]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway -

[THOUGHTS]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway -

[ALL]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show!

[THOUGHTS]
How many minutes 'til the end of intermission
'Til he has to face the fact that he is really in a jam?
He has no patrons he can call on
Nor a backup plan to fall on
Just a hamster wheel to crawl on
And nobody gives a damn!

[USHER]
He tries to scramble and dodge and extricate
Still, his fate lies in wait, like a scavenging vulture
All he wants is to subvert expectations, Black and white
From the left and the right, for the good of the culture!

[THOUGHTS]
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!

How many minutes 'til the end of intermission?
You're a ball of Black confusion
That keeps hitting a plateau!
You can't just flout every convention
Then command complete attention
In a -

[USHER]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show!

[THOUGHTS]
How many minutes ’til the end of intermission?
Some say "write from exploration,"
Some say "just write what you know!"
Either way, you keep careening
So it’s hard to find the meaning
In your -

[USHER]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show!

[THOUGHTS]
How many minutes 'til the end of intermission?
If you can’t please the Caucasians
You will never get the dough!

[USHER]
'Cause critics clinically deny us
Then deny implicit bias

[THOUGHTS]
With their vanity supported
By a system that's distorted
Watch them write you off as lazy
Not to mention, navel-gazey
Lacking both in craft and rigor
Cause you just a fucking nig -

[ALL]
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway -

[ALL, VARIOUSLY]
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!
Usher-Usher! Usher, Usher!
How many minutes 'til the end of intermission?

[USHER, with above]
Oh my God! Oh my God!
Oh my God! Oh my God!
Oh my God! Oh my God!

[USHER]
Less than two!