Admittedly feeling a little “witchy” that evening, Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce begins metaphorically by throwing some things into a cauldron. E coli from romaine lettuce was tossed in. Then the zinger follows and it’s classic Taylor Mac. judy (his preferred gender pronoun) marvels at how four people died from e coli and, within 24 hours, all the supermarkets across America were cleared of this menace to human life. Thousands die from guns each year but nothing happens. That’s all thrown into the cauldron (mixed with a few other choice targets) hoping to make something good. Judy succeeds.
This particular show skewers Christmas as only a politically charged, emotionally communicative and wildly talented drag performer can do. On the raunchy side, there’s the never-to-be-forgotten sing-a-long version of “O Holy Night.” In a Bollywood-esque variant, Mr. Mac aggressively sings about “tidings of comfort and joy” from “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman.” This version is angry. There are a lot of bad memories from his youth related to Christmas and religion in general. His grandparents stopped inviting him when it became apparent he was gay.
Similar to his monumental A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, this show puts a glitter microscope on the heteronormative narrative of America and religion as a patriarchal fable. Holiday Sauce is very funny, musically accomplished and often silly but there are chestnuts of wisdom here and there to give the evening some real depth. A song began “Six o’clock in the morning / I feel pretty good…” The tempo was different and I could not place the lyrics but knew them. At the refrain “I’m flying in Winchester Cathedral / Sunlight pouring through the break of day,” I had a little Christmas joy remembering this great Crosby, Stills & Nash song I had long forgotten. The words still have bite forty years later, presented here as an anthem: “Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here! / Too many people have lied in the name of Christ / For anyone to heed the call / So many people have died in the name of Christ / That I can’t believe it all.”
Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce is dedicated to his drag mother, Flawless Sabrina, who passed away last fall. In the true meaning of Christmas, he recounts her wisdom and the love of family found. Flawless Sabrina, I later learned, was a pioneering drag artist in the 1960’s and toured the country hosting drag beauty pageants. The Queen was a documentary about the Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest filmed in 1967 and presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Drag is now a much bigger business and RuPaul’s pile of Emmy Awards is proof of its more mainstream appeal (at least in big, open hearted cities).
What else to add? Oh, the costumes! There are not many of them but they’ve been created with a dash of the divine by Machine Dazzle. One particular outfit must be described as Sally Field “Sister Bertrille” couture with her signature headpiece populated with a mini-forest of snowy evergreen trees. This show has lots of moods not unlike the holidays that it hates and adores. I left the theater understanding why “Cathedral” was part of the show. “I’m flying in Winchester Cathedral / it’s hard enough to drink the wine / The air just hangs in delusion / but given time / I’ll be fine.” judy is indeed fine. I’d add that Mr. Mac is very merry as well. This particular Holiday Sauce is clearly not for everyone. As our host reminds us, there’s always the exit. That’s the definition of a free country.
Taylor Mac’s new play, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, opens on Broadway this spring.
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/a24decadehistoryofpopularmusicpartI
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/a24decadehistoryofpopularmusicpartII