David and I booked tickets today for Matthew Bournes Swan Lake, the first of our Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2007 events. Actually we have booked Timothy Connigraves, Holding the Man, but that was because we couldnt get tickets in December.
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 solace in the vision of a male swan rather than the female swan that has entranced audiences for centuries. But Bourne insists that his Swan Lake is not revisionist preaching about sexuality. It s more complex than that, he says.
I wanted to create a character who s not clear-cut, like, `Oh, he s the repressed gay man. I wanted a man who had a lot of confusions in his mind. Someone everyone could identify with.
Except, perhaps, himself. A Cockney who grew up always well-adjusted, with never any confusion about his own homosexuality, the 38-year-old choreographer jokingly wonders where he got his love of angst. I like to make people suffer in my pieces, he says.
But that s not because I ve suffered. On the contrary, since founding his own dance company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, in 1987, Bourne has maintained his status as one of Britain s preeminent artists.
I saw this performance in London in 1997, but cant wait to see it at home in Sydney.
Much has been made of Matthew Bourne s decision to cast men as the swans. The original ballet is a standard in the European tradition of romanticized female–male love. The heroine, the swan princess Odette, is portrayed as powerless but lovely in accordance with conventional gender roles, and her hero is portrayed as a hunter who alone has the power to save her.
Having a man in the role of lead Swan puts love between men at center stage, and the naturalistic choreography given to the swan corps discredits the archetype of the swan as a pretty, feminine bird of gentle grace. According to Bourne, The idea of a male swan makes complete sense to me. The strength, the beauty, the enormous wingspan of these creatures suggests to the musculature of a male dancer more readily than a ballerina in her white tutu.
[4]
However, central themes carry through both works. Both are about doomed, forbidden love, and both feature a Prince who wishes to transcend the boundaries of everyday convention through that love. Both themes have strong ties to the actual life of Tchaikovsky, the ballet s composer.
Because it was produced in the United Kingdom, where the royal family has suffered media scandals in recent decades, this ballet is also sometimes viewed as a commentary on them. The thwarted Prince is generically royal in tone, but he has been likened by some to Charles, Prince of Wales, who suffered an arranged marriage before being allowed to marry his true love, and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, who is widely believed to be primarily attracted to men, despite repeated denials. The Prince and Queen characters in the ballet are certainly royalty in the pampered and remote mould sometimes portrayed by republicans, rather than the mould of dedicated civil servants portrayed by royalists.
Kylie just kicked off the British leg of her Showgirl Homecoming Tour in front of 12,000 fans at Wembley Arena in London on Sunday night. Kylie Minogue, who was based in London for many years, made five costume changes during the show and dazzled in one shimmering outfit of sequins and feathers.
The gig was Minogue s first in Britain since she was diagnosed with cancer in May 2005, forcing her to suspend the Showgirl tour in Australia, but the singer resumed performances in her homeland in November 2006.
Kyles had boasted that the Wembley show for which a ticket was 65 pounds (127 dollars, 97 euros) would be the biggest party of all .
She has another six dates planned at Wembley, followed by a further six in Manchester, North West England. The deliciously bad, pre-fab pop quintet known as the Spice Girls are rumored to be fishing the ol latex platforms and getting back together.
ContactMusic.com, you better not be teasing me with this info:
The Princess Diana s tribute concert could provide the impetus for a Spice Girls reunion, according to Baby Spice herself. Emma Bunton told the Sunday Mirror that she would love it for the five girls to get back together for a special performance at the Concert for Diana.
Although rumours of a reunion of Baby, Posh, Sporty, Scary and Ginger - aka Bunton, Victoria Beckham, Mel C, Mel B and Geri Halliwell - have cropped up on numerous occasions, none of them have resulted in a get-together. I would love to do something with the girls again. And it would be great to sing at Princess Diana s concert, Emma said.
We were very close to doing Live8 but Mel B was working and couldn t get out of it.
What the hell was Mel B so busy doing? NOT getting pregnant with Eddie Murphy s baby?
Lace Bass’ partner, Amazing Race reality TV star Reichen Lehmkuhl, has blogged on his myspace about Perez Hilton’s claims that he’s been cheating on Lance. He says he and Lance are still together, and that Perez makes shit up to increase his traffic:
From the Horse’s Mouth: Just a friendly reminder that when you read websites like PerezHilton.com, you are reading lies and are being taken advantage of as you make more money for a person who does nothing but fabricate stories to make his site look interesting.
That anyone would trust someone like Mario Lavendeira (PerezHilton.com) who STEALS from photographers, bloggers, and the general population, is beyond me, really. This person is a common criminal.
Contrary to what this ugly wind-bag has reported, I have not broken up with my boyfriend. I did not go home with anyone from “Survivor” from any party. I have not “made out with” anyone at a party while I have been with my boyfriend.
The opposite has been written on his site. It is all a complete and blantant lie. This person is a liar.
Period.
My book was done before I ever met Lance. I do not date people so that I can “use” them.
I’m self-sufficient and happy to be that way. I have served my country, I have made my own money, my own career, written my own books, bought my own homes and other possesions, and I’m proud to be this way, on my own. I am not broke.
I am individually financially sound. I date people because I happen to love them. Period.
I will only post this once. This disgusting person and his site makes up blatant lies to create interesting stories. I am one of this criminal’s targets.
Understand that. So know, from here on out, that if you read anything about ME on PerezHilton.com, you are 99.
9% sure to be reading a lie or an exagerrated, incorrect version of something that is 0.01% true.
Merry Christmas Everybody!
!
No ifs or buts, it takes an outsize character to put Vicky Pollard in the shade. But Dawn French manages it with ease.
The erstwhile Vicar of Dibley takes to tracksuit and trainers as she plays Vicky’s mother Shelley in a two-part festive edition of Little Britain.
And while she is several inches shorter than Vicky, played by Matt Lucas, she has the obnoxious expression down to a T.
Hypnotist Paul McKenna and comedian Peter Kay will also make guest appearances in the show, which sees the usual Little Britain characters causing trouble abroad.
Vicky’s mother turns up to bail her out when she ends up in a Thai jail. Last month Kate Moss scraped her hair back and appeared on stage as Vicky’s sister Katie for a Comic Relief event in London. Otherwise we have to wait for Matt and David to come to Sydney .
After fifty years in showbusiness, Bette Midler probably felt that she had seen and done it all.
Until, that is, she was confronted with the brazenly obscene antics of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.
So, in a scathing, no holds barred attack, the 61-year-old actress has branded the pair wild and woolly sluts .
Oscar-nominated actress Bette hit out at the duo who have been repeatedly photographed enjoying a string of wild nights out - missing their underwear.
I ve been on the other side to these wild and woolly sluts that we are seeing around our lives these days and I ve taken the other side, she said.
I started my life out as pretty wild but I have decided, after much growing and living, that it s time that we got nicer.
Talking about the pair s headline-grabbing decision to be snapped minus any underwear, she joked: I m wearing underwear, in fact a lot of underwear.
Segueing from the audacious sexuality of her second studio album, Stripped, the chameleon-like Christina pays tribute to the music that has inspired her with her latest album A modern take on vintage jazz, soul and blues from the 1920s, lsquo;30s, lsquo;40s and beyond, this third studio album and double CD is wildly inventive, whose throwback style creates a sound that rsquo;s gritty and raw. The upbeat first single, Ain rsquo;t No Other Man, came out in June and recently the second track has been released : Hurt.
In Europe it entered several charts on the number 1 position.
Christina Aquilera rsquo;s backstory is well-known. A native of Staten Island, the pre-teen began performing in local talent shows while growing up in Pennsylvania.
In 1992, after appearing on Star Search, she joined the cast of the Disney Channel rsquo;s The New Mickey Mouse Club. In 1998 Aguilera rsquo;s song Reflection for Disney rsquo;s Mulan led to a record deal with RCA and the release of her self-titled debut album in Summer, 1999. The album quickly hit the top position on their Hot 100 List (2003).
Today, while devoting the lion rsquo;s share of her time to recording and touring, the 25-year-old is active in a range of philanthropy. A major contributor to the fight against AIDS, Aguilera has participated in the What rsquo;s Going On? cover project for AIDS Project Los Angeles rsquo; Artists Against AIDS.
In 2004 she became the new face for MAC cosmetic company and spokesperson for the MAC AIDS Fund. More recently she became involved in awareness campaigns with YouthAIDS and ALDO. She also sponsors and is actively involved in the Women rsquo;s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh for battered women and children.
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