Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announced the forthcoming publication of The Hang by playwright Taylor Mac and composer Matt Ray. Drawing on jazz music and operatic form, The Hang will be published on Feb. 10.
“The Hang is an ecstatic celebration of theatre, queerness, and community,” Alisha Tonsic, Co-Executive Director of National Operations and Business Development at TCG said in a press release. “Taylor Mac and Matt Ray remind us that gathering, thinking, singing, laughing together, is itself a powerful and necessary act. We’re thrilled to publish this extraordinary work.”
Playwright Taylor Mac and composer Matt Ray convey ancient Athens on the eve of the death of philosopher Socrates. Sentenced to die for corrupting the youth, Socrates spends his remaining hours doing what he loves: engaging in philosophical debate about the true meaning of virtue while singing songs, dancing and, well, hanging out. What follows is a musical-theatrical riff on philosophical history, complete with a Plato who writes it all down, not always with accuracy, implying that “what’s most essential in life, as in theater, are the unwritable moments of joyous communion. In other words, ‘the hang.'”
“It is a radical declaration of queer frivolity in our severe age, and it restores my faith that there is still room for dangerous ideas and weird people in the New York theater.” TheaterMania wrote about the production.
The Hang premiered in 2022 at the Here Arts Center, won two Obie Awards for Music Direction and Composition as well as Design, and received four 2022 Drama Desk Award nominations, including Best Musical, Best Lyrics, Best Music, and Best Costumes.
Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award. The concert-doc, Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Matt Ray is a New York-based pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director. For his work on Taylor Mac’s show A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, he won the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. He has released three albums: We Got It! (2001), Lost In New York (2006), and Songs For the Anonymous (2013).