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Article: Bourne to be wild: Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake may look gay, but the British choreographer says there's more to it than meets the eye.
- Article from:
- The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)
- Article date:
- October 27, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Regent Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Start with an all-male corps of hunky swans. Set them in a time-warp dreamscape oozing baroque '40s romanticism. Mix with mime, dance, and a few female principals, and you have Matthew Bourne's extraordinary Swan Lake, which may be the most overtly gay version of the classic ballet ever seen.
Yet in three years of performances -- from its 1995 London premiere to its current Broadway run at the Neil Simon Theatre through January 24 -- Bourne's unique vision has been an unqualified "crossover" success and one of the rare pieces of gay-identified theater to cause no controversy.
In Bourne's version of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, a solitary prince finds ...