The voluble, funny and self-examining Mr. Jackson clearly has much in common with his voluble, funny and self-examining protagonist. When we met at New York SongSpace, he was even wearing the same T-shirt as Usher, one that celebrated bell hooks, the African-American scholar and activist. Yet he describes “A Strange Loop” as self-referential rather than autobiographical — one reason he does not appear in it.

The director, Stephen Brackett, said that distinction was crucial in the show’s evolution. “It was very important for both of us to underline a sense of universality,” Mr. Brackett said in a phone interview. “We wanted to avoid the pitfall of only thinking about this as a loose-knit memoir.”

Mr. Jackson said he believes the distancing mechanism may also help audience members feel the story more and mentioned a lesson from early in his days at N.Y.U.

“One of the first plays I saw as an undergrad was ‘Death of a Salesman’ with Brian Dennehy, and I remember crying my eyes out,” he said. “Not because I understood anything about being an older white man in the 1950s, but because of the message that in America you’re worth more dead than alive.”