A rock opera written, performed and sung with queerness in mind is the centrepiece of the Sydney Opera House's 50th anniversary of music and performance.
With 55 original songs, 23 vocalists and musicians on stage, a total crew of 38 - excluding designers, sound and technical crew - Taylor Mac and Matt Ray's Bark of Millions sets out to begin a new canon of song for queer history.
"I've been working on it my whole life in the sense that when you're queer growing up in this world, that queerness is not the normal way to be you," director, performer and lyricist Mac said.
"You're constantly are looking for role models history, mentorship, parentage, any kind of thing that tells you actually your reality is real."
The show is framed around 55 original songs written by Mac and Ray, each one to mark a year since the Stonewall Uprising that protested against homophobia and transphobia in New York City, and evolved into annual Pride celebrations.
Mac said presenting a queer lens on society offers joy, hope and liberation.
"Why don't you consider the way that the queerness can liberate, you know, and be celebrated in a different way than just this thing we're afraid of or that we have to squash.
"The great joy though of art is that because it's so intense to be queer in this world, we're able to let it out in beautiful, extraordinary ways."
The performance is replete with intricate costumes by Machine Dazzle.
Celebrated Australian cabaret and jazz artist Mama Alto is part of the international cast.
"Queer people are more expressive than your average person, and sometimes our art needs the big space to be able to breathe," Mac said, gesturing around to the main concert hall in which the performance will take place.
"And it's never booked there ... This show doesn't have commercial ambitions. It's expressing a different kind of oddball art."
The Opera House head of contemporary performance Ebony Bott said there was "no better way" to frame the next 50 years at the venue than with this show.
The one-night only performance will take place on October 20, the official 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House opening.
