Six hours at the Curran for Taylor Mac’s party

The occasion was Carole Shorenstein Hays’ birthday, and the luncheon guests (about 20 women and a sprinkling of men) were dressed appropriately for the Neiman Marcus Rotunda. You might have thought it was an annual garden club luncheon, but this proper gathering on Friday, Sept. 15, took place only a few hours before the raunchy and raucous opening of “Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” at the Curran, and that seemed no coincidence.

Although many of the guests had nothing to do with theater — Fire Chief

of Joanne Hayes-White, Kim Scurr UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Evelyn Cheatham of Worth Our Weight, which trains troubled young people for culinary jobs — the lunch was a pep rally for that evening’s theatrical event. The Curran and Stanford Live are main producers of the production, in association with the Magic Theatre and Pomegranate Arts in New York. I sat between Loretta Greco, artistic director of the Magic, and Linda Brumbach, founder and president of Pomegranate.

I had a cold, and I told Brumbach I wasn’t sure I’d make it through the six-hour performance. “Don’t worry,” she said, “there’ll be freedom to walk around, take breaks.” The show has been performed around the world, she added, and audiences in different countries have varying approaches to utilizing those possibilities of liberty. As though mandated by a universal clock, in France, everyone went out at one time to take a smoke, Brumbach said.

At the theater that night, I made it all the way through, having a fine time listening and watching and keeping an eye on the crowd to see if I could pick up some particularly San Francisco audience trends. While some people left midshow, most made use of their freedom only to bring back snacks and drinks and visit the restroom.

One man and woman in our row said they were going out to dinner, and I wondered whether they’d return. A few minutes later — about midway through — two women came and sat in the row, looking at me quizzically to see if that was OK. “A couple left,” I whispered, adding that we weren’t sure they’d return. So it was fine if the women stayed there, but if the two came back, perhaps they’d have to move, I advised.

In fragments of conversation between songs and during various breaks for merry melee in the audience, they explained they were tourists from Melbourne, Australia, and couldn’t believe their luck “when we crossed the road post-Mexican tapas and margaritas to be handed two tickets to Taylor Mac by two kind gay guys” who said they were tired from hard workweeks. “Wow,” emailed Penny Locaso afterward. “Sometimes life gives you what you need just when you need it.”

They’d been in San Francisco for two days, Locaso said, and this was the best thing they’d done. Locaso works as a coach for “large tech corporations, helping them try and create cultures that amplify human potential and thrive in the future of work . ... I’d happily take Taylor with me into a meeting to demonstrate what authenticity and diversity truly look like when we allow people to be who they really are.”

Mac performs the third and fourth parts of his 24-hour work on Friday, Sept. 22, and Sunday, Sept. 24.

The 70th anniversary commemoration of the Hollywood blacklist is being marked at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on Oct. 27, with a theatrical presentation: “Un-American: A Reenactment of the HUAC Hearings.” There’s a Bay Area contingent already signed up to attend the event, including: Nina Huebsch, daughter of screenwriter Edward F. Huebsch; Margot Pepper, daughter of producer George Pepper; Mira Larkin, granddaughter of Hollywood Ten screenwriter Albert Maltz; and Laura Bresler, great-niece of radio actor Minerva Pious. More information: www.tinyurl.com/y92g7g8l

Art News is out with its annual list of top 200 art collectors in the world, and here’s the home team: Laura Arr illa ga Andre essen and Marc Andre es sen; Larry Ellison; Randi and Robert Fisher; Pamela J. and Alfred J. Giuffrida Joyner; John and Lisa Pritzker; Helen and Charles Schwab; Norah and Norman Stone.

Jeff Johnson suggests that in keeping with the worldwide practice of affixing nicknames to impressive structures (“The Bottle Opener” in Shanghai, “The Gherkin” in London, for example), we name the new Salesforce tower. He’s thinking “The Cigar.”

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Waiter to toddler: “Would you like some more water?” Mother: “No, thanks, she’s drinking Pellegrino.” Conversation at cafe at Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton, overheard by Barry Miller