NEW YORK — Taylor Mac does not set out to bite the hand that feeds in a new play satirizing cultural philanthropy. The MacArthur ''genius grant'' recipient claims to be ''just trying to get some lipstick on it."
Set at a not-for-profit dance company's gala, "Prosperous Fools" invites questions about the moral value of philanthropy in a society denounced by the comedy as ''feudal.'' A boorish patron goes mad trying vainly to wield his lacking creative capital and thus confirms the choreographer's fears of selling out to a sleazy oligarch who represents everything his art opposes. The show, written by Mac and directed by Darko Tresnjak, runs through June 29 at Brooklyn's Polonsky Shakespeare Center.
''I'm not trying to hurt anybody. I'm trying to get people to think differently about the world,'' said Mac, whose gender pronoun is ''judy.''
''I just wish that all of the great philanthropists of America, and the world, would lead with, ‘This is a temporary solution until we can figure out how to make a government of the people, for the people, by the people,'" Mac added. "Instead of, ‘This is the solution: I should have all the money and then I get to decide how the world works.'''
Don't let present day parallels distract you. The fundraiser's honored donor enters atop a fire-breathing bald eagle in a black graphic tee, blazer and cap much like Elon Musk's signature White House getup. He later dons the long red tie popular in MAGA world. But the resemblance doesn't mean Mac is meditating solely on recent events such as President Donald Trump's billionaire-filled administration and tightening grip over cultural pillars including the Kennedy Center.
The script reflects personal frustrations with philanthropy's uneven power dynamics navigated throughout a 30-year career spent in what Mac described as ''a million handshaking ceremonies," first as a cater-waiter and eventually as one of the celebrated honorees who donates performances to help fundraise.
Mac's desperate portrayal of the artist at the center of ''Prosperous Fools'' only sharpens its skewering of wealthy philanthropists who take more than they give away. When the artist cries ''But why couldn't I have a good oligarch?'' and bemoans that ''I should have stayed in the artistic integrity of obscurity,'' it feels like a case of art imitating life.
Mainstream success came last decade for Mac. ''A 24-Decade History of Popular Music'' was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017 and Mac's Broadway debut play ''Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus'' racked up seven Tony nominations in 2019.