For one night only, Taylor Mac and the Philharmonia Orchestra give the UK orchestral premiere of Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 26 November. Here is everything you need to know before you book.
The full version lasts 24 hours. London gets two of them, and an orchestra. Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music arrives at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 26 November 2026 at 7.30pm, in an abridged concert edition performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra. It is the piece's UK orchestral premiere, and the night falls on American Thanksgiving, a fitting date for a show about who gets a seat at the national table.
Who is starring in Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music?
Taylor Mac wrote it and performs it, carrying the whole evening as its only singer and storyteller. For this edition the Philharmonia Orchestra accompanies, with Alan Pierson conducting. The show is one of three Philharmonia projects this season marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Spotlight on Taylor Mac
Few artists arrive at the Royal Festival Hall with a CV quite like Taylor Mac's. The 24-hour marathon was staged in full in New York in October 2016, and the work was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mac has since received a MacArthur Fellowship and the International Ibsen Award, and earned a Tony nomination for Best Play with Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, a Broadway comedy that starred Nathan Lane. The plays also include Hir and The Hang. What this concert asks of Mac is stamina and range in equal measure: torch songs, anthems and disco, a costume change for each era, and a running conversation with the room. Anyone who caught the filmed version on Sky Documentaries knows what the night can do. The rest can find out at Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music on 26 November.
What is Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music about?
It tells the story of America through the songs Americans have sung, starting in 1776 and moving forward one decade at a time. Ballads, marching songs, show tunes and dance-floor hits all get their turn. The twist is the point of view. Each era is retold from the side of the people its official histories left out, so a familiar tune can land very differently by the end of a verse.
It is also not a show you sit back and watch. Audience participation is built into the evening, and the mood swings from riotous to tender and back again. The Southbank Centre bills it as part orchestral concert, part performance art. Mac has called performing it during the anniversary year "an act of resistance", adding: "it's a reminder that America, and her parent country, are best when transforming tyranny into freedom. And doing it with songs."
Who is behind the production?
Matt Ray, who developed the show with Mac, is music director, and Ted Hearne has arranged the score for orchestra. Alan Pierson conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra. The costumes are by Machine Dazzle, a long-time collaborator whose designs change with every decade the show visits. The production is presented by Pomegranate Arts and Nature's Darlings.
A documentary record of the original 24-hour performance, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, is streaming on Sky Documentaries.
When and where can I see it?
Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music plays one performance only, at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, on Thursday 26 November 2026 at 7.30pm. It runs for about two hours with no interval and is recommended for ages 12 and over. Tickets currently start at £20, and Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is booking now.
Mac stays in London for the season, too: Holiday Sauce, the alternative festive show, follows at Soho Theatre Walthamstow from 17 to 23 December 2026, as we reported when both dates were announced.
What else should I book if I like it?
- SIX at the Vaudeville Theatre, booking until 28 November 2027, hands history back to the people it sidelined too, with Henry VIII's six wives telling their own stories as a pop concert.
- Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse, booking until 18 September 2027, is the West End's most immersive night of music and politics, and starts the party well before the show does.
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Piccadilly Theatre, booking until 31 July 2027, stitches decades of popular song into one extravagant evening, sequins and all.
- Choir of Man at The Arts at Marble Arch, from 10 December 2026 to 14 February 2027, turns a pub into a concert hall, with songs from across the decades and plenty of audience goodwill.
