Taylor Mac’s glittering performance art concerts chart a (highly) subjective history of popular music and activism in America from the nation’s founding in 1776 to the present day.
Created with a bevy of collaborators, including music director / arranger Matt Ray, co-director Niegel Smith, 2015 MacArthur Fellow Mimi Lien, lighting designer John Torres, and longtime fellow traveler and costume provocateur Machine Dazzle, this highly anticipated World Premiere will be the first time Taylor Mac performs the complete 24-decade history in its entirety.
Act I: 1776-1806
Founding Father Drag, Women’s Lib, and Crazy Jane
The American Revolution from the perspective of the Yankee Doodle Dandy and an epic battle between drinking songs and early Temperance songs from the queen at the bar who takes things just a little bit too far. Featuring an orchestra of 24.
Act II: 1806-1836
Young Love, Blindfolds, and Murder Ballads
A romp through such chestnuts as “Old Oaken Bucket”, “An Apparition of a Dandy” and that #1 hit, “Poor Little Gypsy”, sure to be one of the great jukebox musicals of the 19th Century. The entire audience will be blindfolded for an hour. Literally.
Act III: 1836-1866
Puppets, Whitman, and Civil War Reenactment
Two Men fall in love while escaping slavery, and Walt Whitman and Steven Foster go head to head for the title of “Father of the American Song” culminating in the queerest Civil War Reenactment in the history of mankind.
***PARTIALLY STANDING SHOW***
Act IV: 1866-1896
Circus, Mikado, and the Oklahoma Land Rush
A dinner theater production of the Mikado set on Mars, plus the queerest land grab in the history of mankind.
***PARTIALLY STANDING SHOW***
Act V: 1896-1926
Tenements, Trenches, and Speakeasies
A Jewish tenement, a WWI trench reenactment and a dance-off between 12 ukulele playing Tiny Tims and 12 Charles Dickens Tiny Tims.
***STANDING SHOW***
Act VI: 1926-1956
Harlem Renaissance, Prison Fantasies, and the Atomic Bomb
Oh the Depression, ain’t it great... Zoot Suit Riots meet Japanese Internment Camps, and white people flee the cities.
***STANDING SHOW***
Act VII: 1956-1986
a March, a Riot, and a Backroom Sex Party
Bayard Rustin’s March on Washington leads to Queer riots. Sexual deviance as revolution in the backroom sex party.
Act VIII: 1986-2016
Direct Action, Radical Lesbians, and Originals A community builds itself under siege, radical lesbians avenge, and Taylor performs original songs written for 2016.
24-Hour Marathon | Sat Oct 8
A highly anticipated event 5 years in the making: Taylor Mac performs all 24-decades from 1776 to the present day in 24-hours.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
VISIT - https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/741
The eight single Act concerts are 3 hours in length, and there are no formal intermissions.
Each Act is a stand-alone work, and the concert does not follow a running narrative.One is encouraged to see as many Acts as they can since the ritual of repeat encounters is a primary theme.
