By Alix Cohen

Taylor Mac is a groundbreaking playwright, songwriter, and performer whose work radically reimagines queer celebration, political critique, and communal transformation. “Really, my gender is performer because I feel like I’m always performing gender.” Mac identifies as Judy. Matt Ray is an Obie Award–winning music director, composer, pianist, and longtime collaborator of Taylor Mac, known for his creative arrangements and theatrical innovation. “He’s taught me so much about music and life, and love,” Judy tells us.

The collaborators met in 2009 when Ray arranged and directed the music for The Lily’s Revenge, an extraordinary five-act, five-hour theatrical extravaganza featuring over 40 performers, live music, vaudevillian interludes, and elaborate costumes- produced at HERE.

Any experience of Taylor Mac is entertaining, thought provoking and unique. This unusually intimate evening of songs and patter (we could see Judy’s dimples) offers a glimpse not only of exceptional talent but also into Judy’s personal thoughts. Composer Matt Ray is a fine musician, singer, and symbiotic partner.

Opening unamplified, Judy performs “Prosymnus,” (The Lily’s Revenge), an amalgam of myths, on solo ukulele. The hero shows Dionysus, god of wine, ecstasy, and rebirth, a secret entrance to Hades so that he might rescue his mother, Semele from the underworld.

Granted a wish in return, Prosymnus responds “Make love to me.” Because time is different below, when the god returned, his benefactor was dead. “You could have had all the world and asked for a kiss,” Dionysus sings. “…Will the stone wall (Stonewall?*) stop us?…Will our pleasure help us when the worms crawl?” The song is rife with yearning.

“The Ladies of Llangollen” refers to Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby—who fled the prying eyes of London to live together in North Wales from 1780 until their deaths in the early 19th century. Then described as “a romantic friendship,” the liaison fascinated and scandalized Georgian society. The couple’s home became a pilgrimage site for Romantic poets, artists, and political figures—including Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. Plas Newydd is now a museum and heritage site celebrating their lives:

“Once just a pair through the passing of time/They’re now found everywhere… Coupled together in cabinets and cupboards, two lesbian lovers…” refers to salt and pepper shakers sold on site, a souvenir touchstone for the queer community. Haunting melody and respectful gravitas hold hands with the humor of the keepsake. The performers sing in harmony.

Judy’s breadth of reference is as wide as the wingspan of Icarus before the fall. Where else would you hear a song like this? “I’m very interested lately in how to maintain my tender heart in this too tough world…how to participate in resistance while keeping who I am,” the artist muses. “We could go out and slash the tires of ICE, but here we’re going to be tender.”

“Marsha P.” is about Marsha P. Johnson, a Black American LGBTQ+ activist, drag performer, and a central figure in the gay liberation and transgender rights movements. Johnson played a pivotal role in the Stonewall Uprising in New York City and co-founded one of the first trans advocacy organizations in the U.S:

“Once there was a year/When the tyrants all cashed in…” it begins. “When the smoke had cleared/That’s when the queens redid their make-up…We danced for all our days/And the tyrants caught the melody…” The song is proud, determined, and wonderfully descriptive.

Shirking Duties”, Judy notes, describes “…spending your whole life with a best friend – if that’s not you, think of a pet…” In fact, it was inspired by the long distance romance of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both married. (Published letters express affection, admiration, and longing.) The song can’t help but resonate even if “I found you and you found me/In our guilty pleasuring” doesn’t apply. With Matt on guitar, duet is warm.

During this rendition, the artist may be thinking of dear friend Morgan Jenness, who passed away November 2024. Later, with halting introduction, we hear a song with that title commissioned by the 92Y for the show Bark of Millions. Jenness was a legendary figure in American theater known for her radical, activist approach to dramaturgy:

“Morgan, are you listening?/Morgan are you really atoms… Or are you a concept in each one of us?…Have you disappeared/Are you only in my thoughts?” It’s a loving tribute, a call out into the ether. Elbows bend, hands float, chest heaves. We feel connection.

Two things inspired “Punch Bowl.” 1. Judy was dissatisfied with the song “After the Ball” (Charles K. Harris’s 1891) performed during the phenomenal A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. (St. Ann’s Warehouse -Brooklyn 2016) Shutting up and writing a new song seemed the proper response. And 2. An admission of particular enjoyment at closing night parties provoked looking twice at the attitude. Dark chords and overlapping waves of melody create Brecht/Weill atmosphere. Cinematic images arrive with a nod to Noel Coward’s “I Went to a Marvelous Party.”

From The Hang, “kind of like a Passion Play about Socrates,” we hear “Only the Unknown Knows.” “You may think you know/When life is daunting/And life is wanting…But what a wondrous thing to wonder/Wondering is holy…” Piano is captivating, cottony vocals drift. ‘A serenade to the gods.

“You and Me”, performed side by side on the piano bench, blankets the hall. “Oh, when we live in the queer little home called the world…Oh when we love in the queer little home called the world…Pass the wine/Pass the time together…we wept… laughed… slept…woke…” Peaceful and loving. We exit smiling.

*1969’s Stonewall incident was a police raid targeting LGBTQ patrons, part of a broader pattern of harassment

The complete concert film of A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is officially distributed by HBO and available to stream on Max. The Hang is a double LP set also on streaming platforms

Taylor Mac’s wildly original gown and wig were designed by his most frequent costumer, Machine Dazzle., a person of seemingly boundless imagination.

Photos by Richard Termine

Lyrics & Lyricists presents
An Evening with Taylor Mac and Matt Ray
Lyrics- Taylor Mac; Music/Piano/Guitar/Vocals- Matt Ray
92nd Street Y New York https://www.92ny.org/