In 2016, playwright Taylor Mac staged the nigh-impossible: a one-night theatrical show at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn that ran for 24 hours and featured 246 songs spanning 24 decades to present an ambitious reimagining – or really, a queering – of American history.
By all accounts, A 24-decade history of popular music was a feat as much as a stellar spectacle. Wesley Morris at New York Times nicknamed him “one of the great experiences of my life“, the show was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and in shortened form it would go on to tour across the United States and Europe. Now, the marathon performance can be seen in a new HBO documentary that takes us front and backstage.
Directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Taylor Mac’s 24 Decades of Popular Music History delves into the craftsmanship, production, talent and sheer endurance that went into the immersive spectacle. It was, after all, much more than a concert. It was an extravaganza filled with costumes, cutting banter, set design, audience participation and the haunting sounds of a 24-piece orchestra.
As the show’s co-director, Niegel Smith, said in the documentary, “it asks us to practice joy, exuberance and maximalism.”
During each performance, Mac and company offered their reinterpretation of songs ranging from “Yankee Doodle” and “Coal Black Rose” to “Stayin’ Alive” and “Gloria”, which punctuate re-enacted scenes from the history of the nation – the civil war, the Path of Tears, white flight. The Cold War, for example, is (perhaps rightly) depicted with huge inflatable penises painted with Russian and American flags, accompanied by “Heroes”.
Don’t make a mistake, A history of 24 decades was far from a boost to American pride. Instead, the show exposed the country’s legacy of genocide, racism, homophobia, misogyny and war in scenes that are both poignant and pointed. Consider ending a chapter on the AIDS epidemic with “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” or one on World War I with the sardonic “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
A still of Taylor Mac’s 24 Decades of Popular Music History. Photo courtesy of HBO.
“I wanted to create a world where people consider things, where people hang out and hang out, where people make music together, where we use our bodies to understand history,” Mac said Paris review in 2018. “So we made a show that does all of those things, where we build ourselves up through adversity.”
That feeling of wresting victory – and yes, joy – from adversity is further confirmed in the series’ fantastically stunning costumes, designed by Mac’s longtime collaborator. machine glare, whose outfits riffed on particular periods. Dazzle is interviewed in the documentary, as are music director Matt Ray, makeup artist Anastasia Durasova, and performers Erin Hill, Steffanie Christi’an, and Thornetta Davis, among others.
Their collective efforts, in Mac’s view, have the effect of building a world not as it could be, but as they want it to be.
“I want to believe that an artist’s job is to move culture forward,” Mac said in the film, “to look at the things that aren’t working in society and think about how they could be better. “
Below, preview an exclusive clip from the documentary.
Retrieved courtesy of HBO.
The HBO documentary film Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History Of Popular Music debuts June 27 on HBO and streaming on Max.
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