Gallery: Inside Taylor Mac’s 24-Hour Performance
The giant inflatable red, white, and blue penis floated in around the 21st hour or so, and the crowd batted it over their heads. By then, they had seen 240 years of American history performed in song, including an onstage battle between Stephen Foster and Walt Whitman, an hour in which they were blindfolded to mark the invention of Braille, a moment when audience members were forcibly rearranged to evoke urban “white flight,” and a Civil War skirmish reenacted with flying ping-pong balls. Everyone was at St. Ann’s on October 8 for the climax of Taylor Mac’s pansexual, pangendered A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, a show normally performed in eight three-hour bursts but tonight done in one 24-hour megamarathon. Audience members got snacks and a meal (dinner, during Reconstruction), and an experience that, judging by the tweets from those in the room …
… was at least spectacular, and perhaps life-altering.
Act 1, hour one, just after noon on Saturday, October 8.
Late in Act 1, Taylor invited audience members onstage and dressed them.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
From 1796–1806, the third hour of the show.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Act 2, hour four.
In hour five, covering 1824, audience members were blindfolded for an hour to mark the invention of Braille ...
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Tim...In hour five, covering 1824, audience members were blindfolded for an hour to mark the invention of Braille ...
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
... which meant that they never saw these costumes.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Act 2, hour five.
Act 3, hour seven, bringing the story up to 1846.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
At one point, Taylor asked everyone to lie down in a heap.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Audience dancing.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Act 3, hour eight.
Act 4 begins with 1866.
At 9 p.m., Taylor’s helpers, the Dandy Minons, served boxed dinners to the audience.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
More dinner.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
In the balcony at St. Ann's, blankets were provided for audience members who needed to nap.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Restorative nap in the lobby.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Taylor was made up onstage during the ninth hour of the show. The costume's made out of hot dogs, invented during this decade.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/T...Taylor was made up onstage during the ninth hour of the show. The costume's made out of hot dogs, invented during this decade.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
The end of Act 4, hour 12.
Act 5, hour 15.
Act 6, hour 17.
It's the ’70s! An inflatable penis arrives, just in time for the Stonewall riots and sexual liberation.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Act 7, hour 19.
Act 8, hour 22: Matt Ray, musical director, leaves the stage so Taylor can perform by himself, around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New...Act 8, hour 22: Matt Ray, musical director, leaves the stage so Taylor can perform by himself, around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Act 8, hour 22.
Act 8, hour 23.
Act 8, hour 24.
It's a wrap, at noon on Sunday. Taylor Mac wears a robe signed by audience members.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times