TAYLOR MAC AND MATT RAY: SONGS FROM BARK OF MILLIONS to Open ArtsEmerson Season
The 17-artist production will feature costumes by Machine Dazzle at Emerson Paramount Center's Robert J. Orchard Stage.
ArtsEmerson will launch its 2026/27 Season with Taylor Mac and Matt Ray: Songs from Bark of Millions, presented in association with The Huntington, at the Emerson Paramount Center's Robert J. Orchard Stage from October 15–18, 2026.
A collective of 17 artists ignites an electrifying collision of performance, live music, and drag spectacle in this concert version of the epic Bark of Millions. One of the great creative partnerships in contemporary American performance, MacArthur Award-winning icon Taylor Mac reunites on stage with Obie Award-winning composer Matt Ray for an evening that invites audiences to reflect on queer lineage, community, and futures through an unforgettable collection of original songs.
Following their A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, the subject of an HBO original documentary, Mac and Ray created Bark of Millions with the ambitious goal of expanding the repertoire of songs documenting and celebrating queer lives. The larger work features original songs inspired by queer figures past and present, bringing together music, performance, history, and radical imagination in a celebration of queerness across time.
Electrifying, provocative, and entirely disarming, Bark of Millions is an open call to community and celebration. More than a traditional concert, the performance brings Mac and Ray's music to theatrical life through a dynamic ensemble of performers, music, movement, drag, and the bold costumes of acclaimed designer Machine Dazzle. The result is a visually spectacular, genre-defying experience that feels at once like a concert, a theatrical event, and a celebration.
With the fierce elation of a pride parade, Mac, Ray, and their collaborators celebrate the queer figures, stories, and experiences that have shaped history. And, everyone is invited to the party! Audiences of all identities are welcome and encouraged to gather, discover these remarkable stories, and share in an evening of music, joy, individuality, and human connection.
“We couldn't imagine a more exhilarating way to open ArtsEmerson's 2026/27 season than by welcoming Taylor Mac and Matt Ray back to Boston with this extraordinary celebration of queer history, artistry and joy,” says Ronee Penoi, ArtsEmerson Director of Artistic Programming. “Taylor and Matt have created something both epic and deeply human -- an invitation to discover the people and stories that have always been part of our shared history, while imagining a more joyful and expansive future together. We're thrilled to bring Boston audiences together to experience that spirit of music, community and possibility live on our stage.”
“My dream is that as you witness our family on stage, you feel yourselves leaning in towards us and joining our world of beauty, hope, remembrance, sharing, darkness, light, and action. As we sing out our history, it is not just a calling back but an urging forward, together,” shares Matt Ray.
“Bark of Millions is a collection of original queer songs inspired by queer people from world history. This concert uses our curiosity (regarding queerness) and disparate voices as an act of liberation from omission and erasure. To do so during America250, and in Boston, the Cradle of Liberty, makes it especially so,” adds Taylor Mac.
Bark of Millions was first brought to life as a luxuriant epic rock opera meditation on queerness featuring a new collection of 55 original songs by Mac and Ray performed by an international ensemble of artists and co-directed by Taylor Mac, Niegel Smith and Faye Driscoll. It was produced by Pomegranate Arts and commissioned by Pomegranate Arts with the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (World premier, Sydney Opera House 2023 / US premiere Brooklyn Academy of Music 2024).
The Boston engagement is one step of a major new extension of the project. On September 29, 2026, Black Dog & Leventhal will publish Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme by Taylor Mac and Matt Ray. The two-volume, fully illustrated hardcover collection brings the world of Bark of Millions to the page through “Musings on Muses,” featuring lyrics and essays exploring the figures and ideas behind the work, and “Gathering the Grooves,” featuring lead sheets for its original music. The collection extends Mac and Ray's mission to create and share a living collection of queer music beyond the stage, inviting readers and musicians alike into the project's celebration of queer history, creativity, and joy.
Prefer BroadwayWorld in Google Search?
|
Covenant SpeakEasy Stage Company (9/25-10/17) |
|
The Norwegians Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre (9/04-10/04) |
|
This Is Your Song: The Elton John Songbook Norton Singers (10/02-10/03) |
|
Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill Arlington Friends Of The Drama (9/19-10/04) |
|
|
The Sound of Music Boch Center Wang Theatre (11/17-11/22) |
|
Rocky Horror Show The Company Theatre (10/02-10/18) |
|
John Cameron Mitchell: Hedwig 25th Anniversary Movie Tour Boch Center (10/01-10/01) |
|
Oh, Mary! Emerson Colonial Theatre (12/21-1/03) |
|
Beetlejuice Boch Center Wang Theatre (2/09-2/21) |
|
Little Bear Ridge Road SpeakEasy Stage Company (1/29-2/20) |