Homo-Romeo Ballet Dumps Juliet
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
QUEER FOR SHAKESPEARE Bourne
Mathew Bourne, Britain's most notable choreographer, is working on a modern, all-beef adaptation of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" ballet, which forgoes outdated concepts like heterosexuality. Romeo, Romeo will push ballet's gay threshold further than anything to come before it, even Bourne's 1995 all-dude Swan Lake. His goal is to create "a convincing love duet ... for two men"—but with loads of sword fighting.
It should be noted that Shakespeare was very likely bisexual—126 of his sonnets were said to be addressed to a man and his original casts were typically all male (it being scandalous to allow women on stage in Elizabethan times). But at least they cross-dressed back then. And, anyway, everyone wore tights.