Taylor Mac and Matt Ray's: Bark of Millions in Concert

An electrifying collision of music & drag spectacle.

From theatre renegades Taylor Mac (MacArthur 'Genius’ Fellow), Matt Ray, and Machine Dazzle, comes an epic rock opera, a meditation on queerness featuring a collection of original songs and an array of extravagant costumes, brought to life by a powerhouse ensemble of 16 international artists including Le Gateau Chocolat and Mama Alto.

Every time Bark of Millions is staged, a new song joins the canon; part of a mission to rebalance the American songbook by writing new works that centre queer voices. This continues with a debut of the latest addition, the 2026 song, commissioned by the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford and Schwarzman Center, Yale University.
 
As in his legendary retelling of American history A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Mac and his artistic community use music and drag to subvert and deconstruct the expected and joyfully celebrate queerness in all its forms.

With the fierce elation of a Pride parade, Bark of Millions is a provocative, transformative experience unlike any other which celebrates the power of individuality and human connection.

In Taylor Mac’s own words:

This is a hybrid work. You could think of it as an opera-concert-song-cycle-musical-performance-art-piece-play. It’s certainly structured like all of those things squished together. Maybe this will help: its subtitle is "A Parade Trance Extravaganza for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme". I’ve never seen a parade trance extravaganza for the living library of the deviant theme, so I’ve no context to measure our success. Regardless, the work is more about the stretching towards than the realization of.

Something you heard/will hear in the show (but in case you miss it) is that each song in the piece was inspired by a different queer person from world history. Some you’ll know. Some you won’t. The hope is that we’ll make you a little more queer than when you entered the theater. The hope is, as a result of making you a little more queer, you’ll do the same to others, and then we all won’t have to watch our backs as much. But is that really the show? The tongue-in-cheek, yes-and-no version, yes. Or rather, the version where queerness is considered in a pouring out of song, yes please.

Join the party. All are welcome.

Taylor Mac is a Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellow for 2025/26 in partnership with Mansfield College.

Part of Unfinished Revolutions, a season tracing the living legacy of 1776.

Trailer