Review: Opera Schmopera. Taylor Mac and His Collaborators Will Help You Get THE HANG of It

When this year's PROTOTYPE Festival was put off for a year because of Covid concerns, some of the pieces went into mothballs. Taylor Mac's THE HANG, under the auspices of HERE, one of New York's major downtown arts organizations, based in Tribeca, decided to, uh, hang around.

According to the program bio, Mac's pronoun de choix is "judy"--a personalized pronoun whose gender is constantly changing (both professionally and personally). As Mac says, "My gender is 'performer'--it's also an art piece and as annoying to navigate as it is delicious...You may change it yourself. I suppose that's why I've made a life in the theatre. It's a life geared toward the act of change."

Now, if that explanation has your head spinning, don't worry about it. While THE HANG--with book and lyrics by Mac and the fabulous musicianship of composer/music director Matt Ray and dazzling musicians, directed by Niegel Smith, choreographed by Chanon Judson, topped off by incredible scenic/costume design from Machine Dazzle--may not be linear, that won't affect your enjoyment in the least.

(I cannot and should not forgot the often excessive contributions to the lighting design by Kate McGee, sound design by Cricket S. Myers, and make-up design by Anastasia Durasova, with dramaturgy by Morgan Jenness.)

As Mac said about judy's gender, THE HANG itself is "delicious." (I hope I got that right.) And it's "gayer than Spartans or pantyless Tartans" (to quote one of the numbers).

As for calling it an opera, well, that's up for grabs, that is, if opera makes you think of Wagner, Verdi and Monteverdi (or even Mazzoli, Muhly or Ruo). You might find "opera" or even "downtown opera" a little bit, or a lot, of a stretch for THE HANG. But if you think of this art form as a "an extended dramatic piece where music is an essential and it also might include art, words, music, drama and dance," well, by George, you've gotten pretty close. Of course, the show is quite chameleon-like, never going where you think it's going (or sometimes hope it's going...).

THE HANG might be the story of the death of Socrates, but what a way to go. He might have been known for saying that "the only thing he was aware of was his ignorance," implying that the realization of our ignorance is the first step in philosophizing, but did this person who never actually wrote anything actually exist? THE HANG leaves that up for grabs.

This is not, I must add, a one-person show by any means and Mac, as writer, and Ray, as composer, give everyone onstage lots to do in its 100 minutes.

A mighty ensemble gets to hang with the master, including El Beh in a couple of roles and, in one, a skirt with Medusa's head; Trebien Pollard in orange ram's horns; Wesley Garlington out for Socrates in several ways, and Kenneth Ard, well, distracting wearing as little as possible.

The music put everyone spectacularly to the test, with the scatting from Kat Edmonson and Synead Cidney Nichols quite mind-blowing. And brava to Queen Esther, for her earthy voice and keeping it going while performing on a toilet.

Was Socrates an illusion of Plato (sort-of straight man Ryan Chittaphong), who spends extended periods hanging on Socrates' words and taking notes on a stenographer's machine? According to Mac, if the master did exist, he wasn't necessarily put to death at the age of 70 by his fellow citizens because of impiety and his off-the-charts point of view but because of his queer appetites.

While the piece is never less than amusing, it does go on--with a number of 'gotcha' endings after his taste of hemlock, though his transformation into Noel Coward is definitely worth waiting for. And all the sidestepping into one area or another of musical territory is worth every second after you've begun to think that, sometimes, too much really is too much. (It's not.)

The spectacularly jazzy work from the brass (extravagant kudos to Greg Glassman on trumpet) and multitude of saxes (the devastating Jessica Lurie) make you want to jump down on stage and join the fun that they are unquestionably having. Cheers to all the musicians, including composer/conductor Ray, Jonathan Beshay, J. Walter Hawkes, Joel Mateo, Lisa Parrott and Gary Wang.

To go back to that question about whether it's an opera. Yes and yes. But life--this life, anyway--is also a cabaret, old chum, and probably another half dozen genres we could come up with. In the end: Does it matter?

There's still another week to catch THE HANG, though most tickets for the small house are gone. But hope springs eternal: For more information, see the website.

To post a comment, you must register and login.