“Music solves 99% of the problems in the world. We hope to nudge readers, listeners, movers, singers, and music makers into an openhearted prayer (or spell) of ecstatic frenzy.” — Taylor Mac

Renegade theater artists Taylor Mac, Matt Ray, and Machine Dazzle’s four-hour rock opera, Bark of Millions, is an electrifying collision of performance, live music, and drag spectacle celebrating queerness, with the fierce elation of a pride parade.

That same spirit enlivens Mac and Ray’s new book, Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme, written for theater obsessives, musicians, and performers to expand the repertoire of songs celebrating queer lives. Two fully illustrated hardcover books, one of lyrics and essays and one of lead sheets for 50 of the show’s songs, document a canon of music celebrating this inherently queer and joyful world.

Mac and Ray discuss their genre-defining work, the persistent transcendence of joy over tragedy, and the commonality found in the personal histories of queer peers.

Can’t make the event? Purchase your copy of Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme here, and we’ll get it signed for you.

About Taylor Mac and Matt Ray:

Taylor Mac, Lyricist/Concept is a playwright, poet, performance artist, actor, and singer-songwriter. A MacArthur and Guggenheim fellow, Mac is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award and the Kennedy Prize. The concert-doc Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Matt Ray, Composer is a pianist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and music director whom The New York Times called “the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene.” He collaborated with Taylor Mac on The Lily’s Revenge and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, sharing the Edward M. 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, and received a 2023 Obie Award for his composition and music direction on The Hang.