The brash, profane, funny, infuriating, high-flying first chapter of Taylor Mac's '24-Decade History
“I believe theater is community and I think of myself as a community activist; someone whose job it is to bring people together, give them a shared experience and remind them of the things they’ve forgotten, dismissed or buried.” -Taylor Mac
In Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, he charts the history of popular music and activism in America, from the nation’s founding in 1776 to the present day.
"If America were ready for a drag queen president — stranger things have happened — there is no question that Taylor Mac would be the one to come up with history's most astutely outrageous, and most outrageously astute, version of "Hail to the Chief."
Mac also could turn into a dictator. So be it. I'd vote Mac.
The performance artist's crowd control skills are second to none. "What I'm going to ask you to do is going to go on longer than you want it to," was how Mac prefaced the earliest instruction gave given to the audience in the first of four six-hour chapters of "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" at the Theatre at Ace Hotel on Thursday night.
"We want you to be uncomfortable," Mac continued, telling the audience to stand, wave hands in the air and wiggle hips ridiculously. It got much worse. At times, I was ready to kill Mac. The entitlement!
But drag-queen entitlement is, without question, uniquely entertaining when in the hands (and all the other anatomical parts) of Mac, its greatest theatrical master. Extravagantly dressed, from headdress to platform heel toe, this master of disguise completely took us aback with an ability to cut through the bull, even while creating new levels of it.
If you haven't already heard, "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" is ruthlessly punishing, infuriating, alarming, charming, impressive and obsessive like no other music theater. It is also extraordinarily illuminating, if you are willing, without succumbing to silliness, to put up with it. Did I say it is infuriating? Wagner, to whom Mac has some resemblance in the grandiosity department, can be infuriating too. More important, like Wagner, Mac is a sorcerer.
With an hour for each decade from 1776 to the present, and through 246 (!) songs, Mac has set out to exhaustingly examine American history to find out how we got here. The show has no breaks. Mac never stops singing, storytelling, lecturing or emceeing, all the while beguiling and berating the audience. Each decade gets a different elaborate costume and comes with a narrative or historical theme. The heels stay on."— Mark Swed, Mar. 16, 2018
This post is an excerpt, read the full article on the Los Angeles Times website.
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