Famed deconstructionist drag performance artist Taylor Mac is making a return to Chicago this week with the show An Abridged Concert of the History of Political Popular Music at the Museum of Contemporary Art ( MCA ). It's Mac's first Chicago appearance since the About Face Theatre run of The Young Ladies Of in 2008.
While The Young Ladies Of was an autobiographical father-son piece, Mac's MCA piece is a portion of a planned grand-scale 24-hour project looking at the entire history of popular music in America set for 2015 in New York.
"[The MCA show] is more like a touring version of popular and political music abridged," said Mac during a Skype interview from Ireland where he was performing an 20th century abridgement of the forthcoming 2015 event. "There are 240 songs in that concert, so I thought it would be fun to start learning them all by creating touring versions of the show."
Mac was reluctant to say what the song repertory was for the MCA show, but he said some people will be surprised that he's not focusing on left-wing material.
"The political show is really about all the conservative political songs throughout the history of popular music in the United States," Mac said, describing the performance in a "post-modern neo-romantic" way to "tear the pieces apart and deconstruct it all." "It's more like 'Okie from Muskogee' and all these songs that conservatives have used throughout the years to be political. And I'm not in anyway shape or form a conservative, but I think it's more interesting that way."
Once Mac finishes the Chicago concerts, the artist will return to New York to remount an acclaimed 2012 version of Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan and to appear in a workshop at Classic Stage Company called The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville co-starring Mandy Patinkin ( Evita, Homeland ) and featuring direction and choreography by Susan Stroman ( Crazy for You, The Producers ).
"I could have taken a dance class anywhere, but no, I get to work with Susan Stroman!" Mac said. "[Patinkin] is also one of the most generous performers I've ever worked with and we just love singing together. I can't wait for us all to get back together to work on it."
Taylor Mac performs An Abridged Concert of The History of Political Popular Music at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 27-28, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. Tickets are $28 and $10 for students ( if available ). Call 312-397-4010 or visit www.mcachicago.org .