It’s hard to believe that Taylor Mac has never been on Broadway. A veteran theatermaker on the frontlines of New York’s arts and performance scene and winner of the MacArthur “Genius” grant in 2017, Mac has performed and premiered work all over the world, from Manhattan’s Town Hall and Lincoln Center to London’s Hackney Empire and Barbican, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, and the Sydney Opera House. But April 21 marks Mac’s first main stem opening at the Booth Theatre with the dark, philosophical comedy “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.”
Starring Nathan Lane as the titular clown-turned-maid tasked with cleaning up the carnage of Shakespeare’s notoriously bloody Roman Empire tragedy, the George C. Wolfe–directed, Scott Rudin–produced play also features Kristine Nielsen and Julie White, the latter of whom came aboard after original star Andrea Martin’s mid-rehearsal injury forced a casting switch-up.
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For Mac—who recalls getting funding for the play two days after sliding the script onto Rudin’s desk (“It was probably the fastest thing ever!”)—it was the United States’ political climate and the opportunity to portray impoverished characters as center-stage heroes that sparked interest in Gary’s perspective. “It has a lot to do with us hanging out in our political state of affairs and thinking, Oh gosh, once he’s [Trump] out of office, we’re all going to have to clean up—it’s going to take all this political capital to try and clean up the mess of what’s been created,” Mac explains. “I wanted it to be about us, not about the Tituses of the world, not about the emperors. But about the people who have to clean and go about their daily life trying to figure out how to live in this type of culture.”
When it comes to the actual mechanics of a Broadway debut, Mac seems rather unphased by the pomp and circumstance of the Great White Way: “There’s that element of maybe [feeling] stress of the high stakes, the high-profile aspects of Broadway, but you can substitute that with the fact that when it’s Off-Off-Broadway, everyone’s working five jobs,” he says. “It feels like the same level of stress in order to make it happen.”
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As a seasoned creator who’s seen it all, one must wonder what Mac’s advice would be to industry upstarts looking to chart their own path onstage, whether at a 1,000-seater in the Theater District, an experimental haunt downtown, or a DIY basement in Brooklyn.
“I always say to young people: Don’t ask for permission to be creative. Go out there, do it, make it,” Mac says. “If I had not written this play and didn’t have it in my back pocket to give to Scott Rudin when I had that meeting, none of this would be happening. And if I hadn’t had a career for myself over the last 25 years in New York, even if it was Off-Off-Broadway, he wouldn’t have wanted to have a meeting with me. Produce your own work; make it happen, you’ll learn along the way. You’ll be happier. Your life will be better. If you build your career before your big Broadway debut and the big Broadway debut happens and it’s thrilling, great. And if it’s not thrilling, it doesn’t matter because you still have your career. It’s OK to put in the 25 years.”
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