This costumed chameleon is breathing new life into some threadbare tunes.
Gender-shedding artistic polymath Taylor Mac will re-imagine some of America’s most famous pop songs through a queer lens during a Celebrate Brooklyn performance in Prospect Park on Aug. 1. The cross-dressing cultural icon will perform “The 20th Century Abridged” — selections from Mac’s 24-hour performance piece called “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” that takes on U.S. pop songs throughout the country’s 240-year history. Mac plays some of America’s songbook straight, but also appropriates and retools oppressive or outdated tunes.
“It’s a ritual sacrifice of things we hold dear from the 20th Century that aren’t serving us anymore,” Mac said.
The performer sings, dances, writes performance pieces, and plays the ukulele, but don’t call Mac a “Renaissance man” — the artist eschews gender and identifies by the pronoun “judy.”
“I’ve always felt like I was a little bit not-quite-male, not-quite-female, and not transgender,” Mac said. “The main reason I chose ‘judy’ is because I wanted a gender pronoun that, if people made fun of it, it kinda feels emasculating — because you can’t say ‘judy’ and roll your eyes without being campy.”
During longer performances of the 24-Decade project, Mac changes getups for each decade, but the abridged, hour-long show precludes that, so judy’s dud designer is making a single special (and secret) costume for the Prospect Park performance, judy said.
“I don’t even know what it looks like,” said Mac, whose grotesque costumes often flow, project, or dangle from the artist. “I’ll probably see it the day before and spend the day figuring out how to walk in it.”
Twenty-four burlesque dancers will back Mac up, stripping to the 1962 song “The Stripper.” And percussion corps Brooklyn United Marching Band will march to the beat of Mac’s drum during performances of new wave hit “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and a special, unannounced song, judy said.
It’s Mac’s first time playing with a marching band, and judy is amped, judy said.
“They’re real pros,” Mac said. “They perform with everybody, so it’s my honor to get to work them.”
Bard of Brooklyn Walt Whitman figures into Mac’s 24-hour saga, but judy is only performing songs material from the 20th century on Saturday — precluding the 19th-Century father of American verse. Still, the poetic patron may make an appearance at the show, Mac said.
“I was thinking of throwing in some Walt Whitman references, but I haven’t decided,” judy said.
Mac is known for inviting audience members on stage, and judy said there will be a definite audience-participation element to Friday’s show — just don’t be surprised if it makes you a little anxious.
“Like I said — it’s a ritual sacrifice that we’re creating,” Mac said. “So we have to make the audience a little nervous and then make them overcome that discomfort and find our way to some kind of celebration of a new take on history.”
“Taylor Mac: The 20th Century Abridged” at the Prospect Park Bandshell (enter at Prospect Park West and 9th Street, www.brica
