^{Photo: Little Fang}

by James Judd

In 2016, beloved performance art auteur Taylor Mac burst into the broader culture’s consciousness with a 24-hour marathon performance of his 24-Decade History of Popular Music. It was a massive happening in the world of theater. Wesley Morris of the New York Times said, “Mr. Mac gave me one of the great experiences of my life.” 

The performance was captured in a documentary shown at last year’s Provincetown International Film Festival, which is also currently streaming on MAX. This week Mac returns to Provincetown with a new concert at Town Hall, August 9, presented by the Payomet Performing Arts Center. 

Although Mac’s work is labeled as drag, even the most expansive definition of that term isn’t broad enough to capture the scope of his work. Mac, who says his preferred pronoun is a lower-case “judy,” and his gender is “performer” but is okay with “he,” cannot be pigeon-holed as a drag queen. 

“Mr. Mac is also a devastatingly intelligent artist of conflation,” said the New York Times in its review of 24-Decade. “Spending 24 hours filtering 240 years of predominantly American music — battle hymns, black spirituals, war ballads, minstrel tunes, works songs, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals, Motown, Top 40… through the prerogatives of a drag show is daring.”

In a Zoom interview with the MacArthur Genuis Grant honoree from the home he shares with his husband in the Berkshires, wearing a beanie and faded sweatshirt, not a speck of glitter anywhere, with sunshine streaming in from a skylight behind him as he sipped from his coffee mug, Mac, 50, appears the picture of serenity. 

“I first came to Provincetown in 1996,” he says. “I lived in a tent. I did that for two summers and then I lived with my friends and then finally I rented a little studio for the summer with my husband.” 

Mac has performed in Provincetown but likes to keep work at bay when returning to what he calls his “spiritual center.” 

“Provincetown has been about not performing and writing,” Mac explains. “I treated it like my sanctuary.”

But he agreed to make his Town Hall debut in what he says will be a love letter to the town. “I’m going to sing songs and tell stories of my various times in Provincetown,” he says. 

Audience participation can figure largely into Mac’s performances. At one point in 24-Decade, audience volunteers were asked to put a ping-pong ball in their mouths and then spit it into the mouth of someone nearby. Oh, the fun we had before Covid! 

“When I was a kid, I would see shows like Peter Pan where the kids have to clap to keep Tinkerbell alive,” says Mac. “I thought participation was part of the theater. It always has been for centuries, except for 1940 to 1960 when you were supposed to sit there just listening and maybe clap at just the right time.”

The audience in the documentary is clearly under his spell throughout the marathon event. They revel in putting on costumes and doing things like slow dancing with a same-sex stranger or throwing those ping pong balls at one another. 

“It’s an offering,” says Mac. “What would it mean to throw a ping pong ball at another human being that is going to express your anger but isn’t going to hurt anyone? It’s a better choice than shooting someone because you have a disagreement. Using ping-pong balls instead of bullets to me is ‘queering’ the world.”

Googling the awards and honors bestowed upon Mac makes for a humbling scroll. Among the accolades are Tony Award nominee for Best Play, Drama League Award for Unique Contribution to the Theatre, Pulitzer Prize for Drama Finalist, Obie Award, Guggenheim Award. The list goes on, but Mac is quick to give his collaborators their due. 

Foremost among those collaborators are the immensely talented costumer Machine Dazzle and composer Matt Ray. Dazzle uses found objects and historical references to create pieces that might be described as wearable ideas. Potato chips might feature in a headdress worn during a Civil War number because that’s when the potato chip was invented. Matt Ray can turn an ugly Ted Nugent song with lyrics about gay bashing into a romantic, slow dance for an imaginary, queer, junior-high prom. All these talents, plus a host of dedicated supporting artists, combined make theatrical magic. 

“I had a teacher once tell me that if you don’t want your vision to change you probably shouldn’t work in music theater,” says Mac. “That was smart advice. You make your offering, and then everyone else makes their offering, and then you find a way to make something special with all the various pieces. The goal in creating a piece of musical theater is to make something that’s larger than yourself.” 

Midnight in the Garden of Evil, a musical adaptation of the popular book and film of the same name, directed by Broadway powerhouse Rob Ashford and with a book by Taylor Mac, is currently running at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It’s packed with some of Broadway’s finest, including J. Harrison Ghee, a Tony winner for Some Like It Hot, and Tom Hewitt, recently seen here in the titular role in Provincetown Theater’s production of Sweeney Todd. Although no Broadway opening has been announced, glowing reviews and hot ticket sales suggest a run along The Great White Way is coming. 

“Everyone is just really bringing it in a way that you don’t often see,” Mac said. “Everyone is so proud to be in it and they all love each other so much and it’s just a total joy to watch them perform. I’ve never had so much fun watching a play of mine performed.” 

Taylor Mac: Born to Run (to Provincetown) is presented by Payomet Performing Arts Center at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St., on Friday, August 9, 7:30 p.m. For tickets ($48 – $125) and information call 508.487.5400 or visit payomet.org.