The new musical, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, with a book by Taylor Mac and music by Jason Robert Brown, received its world premiere at Chicago鈥檚 Goodman Theatre on July 8. Adapting the bestselling 1994 鈥渘on-fiction novel鈥� by John Berendt, the new work centers on The Lady Chablis, an important (though secondary) character in the book鈥攚hich is a sprawling exploration of Savannah, Georgia and a true crime story. Lady Chablis, a transgender cabaret performer, is played by Grammy and Tony Award-winning performer J. Harrison Ghee. Rounding out the central trio are Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt as Jim Williams, a wealthy antiques dealer, and his lover/helper Danny Hansford, played by Austin Colby. Also in the mix is Olivier Award nominee Sierra Boggess as Emma Dawes, a southern Nancy Reaganesque belter.
The creative team is led by Mac, Tony Award-winning composer Brown, choreographer Tanya Birl-Torres, and Tony-winning director Rob Ashford (pointing to the work's Broadway ambitions). The result is a quirky, catchy, at times provocative, thoughtful homage to a book which brought queer characters to the foreground in a time when they were often invisible.
半岛体育 spoke with the much-lauded Mac during previews, who uses the pronouns "judy." Below is judy's thoughts on taking the novel from the page to the stage.
You鈥檝e known about the Berendt book since its publication 30 years ago.
Taylor Mac: Yes. I had moved to New York City and I didn鈥檛 know anyone, and I was starting my young adult life. And I鈥檇 never seen America embrace anything queer en masse in the way that it was embracing this book. It launched an idea in my head that I could lean into what made me different, instead of run from it. In acting school, everyone was like, "You鈥檝e got to act more butch. You have to change yourself in order to be accepted into this industry." And it was challenging. It was seven years of not being able to get an audition, let alone get the part. And yet, this book came right at that time, and it was saying, "No, no, no, no, there鈥檚 another way to do this." So I have always had the book in the back of my brain. And now that I鈥檝e written this, I feel in a lot of ways I wouldn鈥檛 have gone the path that I鈥檝e gone in my artistry had it not been for The Lady Chablis.
How did the story resurface for you?
It was director Rob Ashford. We had met at a gala performance, and we hit it off. But I had no reason to believe that Rob would think I would be right for it. I think he really enjoys trying to find the right person for the right thing. That鈥檚 part of the magic for him. And for me, it was a shoo-in. I thought, if I鈥檓 ever going to write a commercial musical, this is absolutely it. This is the story that I should be telling.
You鈥檝e bounced off other things before鈥�like 2019鈥檚 Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, your first Broadway show. But have you ever done a piece like this, where you took a work and made it a different thing?
If there鈥檚 source material, usually I鈥檒l make something that鈥檚 "inspired by." But this is the first time I鈥檝e actually done an adaptation. That said, the book is the book. If you want the book, go to the book. I always ask myself on any project, why does this needs to exist? And this project doesn鈥檛 need to exist to give you the book. It wants to exist for things that matter to us now. And so I鈥檓 thinking, "Why does it need to sing instead of read?"
The book is rather sprawling, in a way. You must have had to make a lot of decisions on what to leave out.
Of course. I wasn鈥檛 going to make a 48-hour show. You could do a version that is durational and has all the characters. But the things that inspired me in the book, those are the things that I wanted to sing. Those are the things that I felt I should sing.
In a recent interview, you talked about not wanting to force the queer character into a narrator position. But there鈥檚 a narrator in the book. Did you simply eliminate that role?
I think if you really look at it, I have. What I鈥檝e done is cast the audience as the book writer. The audience is John Berendt. When I read the book, I felt that we didn鈥檛 really know that much about him. And one of the reasons we didn鈥檛 is so that he could be our avatar in Savannah. So, create the John Berendt character on stage, and everyone follows that person as they鈥檙e following the story? No, no, no. Everyone in the show wants to get in the book. Everyone is trying to make sure that the audience, the book writer, understands their story is the story of Savannah. All the characters are competing for the audience鈥檚 attention, which in many ways, is very much like America. Everyone鈥檚 competing with their fellow Americans, trying to insist that their version of America is America.
Did Berendt collaborate with you at all, or leave you to it?
Basically, he said, 鈥楰nock yourself out.鈥� My approach has been that this is not John鈥檚 child. This is his grandchild. And grandpa can not like certain things that the grandchild does, or how they behave, but you still want them to love their grandchild, right? So it鈥檚 not him. It didn鈥檛 come from him, and yet he鈥檚 all over it.
Does the musical have an 鈥�80s flair?
Oh, definitely. Jason Robert Brown has worked in certain sounds from the period. The costumes by Toni-Leslie James are fabulous. The hairstyles are very 鈥�80s. And I thought about it in terms of my writing. What was the language of the club world around that time? What was the language of sitcoms around that time? What was the language of preservationists? What was the political language? All of that starts to seep in. And so much of that is in the book already that I don鈥檛 have to stretch too far.
Have you strayed from the novel elsewhere?
You鈥檙e going to recognize certain things that I鈥檝e done in the book that are my taste. But it鈥檚 us reaching towards something. One thing that drives me a little crazy is how Americans, specifically, talk about art and theatre and storytelling, thinking it鈥檚 about representation. It鈥檚 actually not. It鈥檚 about consideration. I can鈥檛 represent myself on a stage, let alone somebody else. But what I can do is consider somebody. You鈥檙e going to be watching a show that consists of the collaborative鈥擩ason and Tanya and Rob, and all of the designers and all of the cast, and John Berendt, too鈥攁ll considering this world, and these people, and these themes and ideas. It鈥檚 not about reality. It is about how we stretch towards consideration.
J. Harrison Ghee in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Brianna Buckley and cast of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
J. Harrison Ghee and cast of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Tom Hewitt and J. Harrison Ghee in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Tom Hewitt and Sierra Boggess in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Mary Ernster, McKinley Carter, Sierra Boggess, Jessica Molaskey, and Kayla Shipman in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Wes Olivier and J. Harrison Ghee in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Brianna Buckley, Tom Hewitt, and Lance Roberts in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Wes Olivier, Jarvis B. Manning Jr., Rory Shirley, DeMarius R. Copes, Andre Malcolm, Maya Bowles, and Shanel Bailey in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Bird Girl statue in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
