Choreographer extraordinaire Matthew Bourne returns to the Ahmanson with his thrillingly original take on Swan Lake, the Tchaikovsky ballet that first put Bourne’s name on the dance map in the 1990s with its stageful of bare-chested male swans and the handsome prince who found himself smitten with their seductive leader.

Since then, Ahmanson audiences have thrilled to The Car Man, Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands, Sleeping Beauty, The Red Shoes, and earlier this year a return engagement of 1999’s Cinderella, but it’s Swan Lake that started it all back in 1997 when Southern California theatergoers were introduced to Bourne’s unique blend of classical ballet and the quirky-jerky dance moves that have since become his trademark.

Set somewhere between the mid-20th century and now (its gowns are gorgeously late-’40s New Look but a cell phone is totally 2019), Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake introduces us in quick succession to a lonely Prince (Andrew Monaghan, Cinderella’s dashing WWII pilot hero this past February), a lascivious Queen (Nicole Kavera), a ditzy Girlfriend (Katrina Lyndon), a conniving Private Secretary (Jack Jones), and most importantly of all The Swan (Max Westwell), who first appears to our young hero in a dream, then captures his heart and soul one moonlit night.

Not only does this gender switch allow director-choreographer Bourne to give sixteen magnificent male dancers some of the most thrillingly masculine moves ever executed by a corps-de-ballet, it’s hard to imagine a traditionally feathered-and-tutued ballerina having nearly the impact on a young man’s psyche as Bourne’s he-swan does on a Prince at long last able to understand that what he wants, no Girlfriend can supply, no matter how bodacious and curvaceous she might be.

Though Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake does give a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to old-style ballet in a royal night out at The Opera House, the rest of it is Bourne all the way, and never more so than at the Swank Bar, whose trendy patrons do their stylized disco moves to a Tchaikovsky beat, just one of many instances where humor is as much a part of the Bourne mix as drama and romance.

Ultimately, however, it’s those spectacularly sculpted swans (an entire stageful of them) whose testosterone-fueled athleticism and grace make this Swan Lake a must-see while bringing Act One (and our princely hero) to the most thrilling of climaxes.

Two, three, and even four company members take turns in the production’s five leading roles, though it’s hard to imagine any quintet surpassing Westfall’s handsome hunk of a Swan (or his seductive Stranger In Black), Monaghan’s absolute dreamiest of Princes, Kabera’s glamorous Jocasta-esque Queen, Lyndon’s deliciously featherbrained Girlfriend, or Jones’s masterfully manipulative Private Secretary, all of whose stories are as easily understood as if this were a traditional play with words.

Ballerinas Megan Cameron, Anna Cornelis, Michaela Guibarra, Shoko Ito, Mari Kamata, Katie Webb, and Carrie Willis are splendid too as assorted princesses, maids, nurses, and clubgoers, but it’s the men–Jonathon Luke Baker, Benjamin Bazeley, Alistair Beattie, Isaac Peter Bowry, Tom Broderick, Joåo Castro, Parsifal James Hurst, Nicholas Keegan, James Lovell, Jack Mitchell, Harry Ondrak-Wright, Barnaby Quarendon, Sam Salter, Mark Samaras, and Alex Sturman at the performance reviewed–who earn the evening’s loudest and most deserved cheers as bare-torsoed, barefoot swans and more.

Lez Brotherston’s sumptuous sets and costumes are as gorgeous as sets and costumes get, particularly as lit by Paule Constable. Duncan McLean’s animated swan projections add to the design magic as sound designer Ken Hampton fills the Ahmanson with non-stop surround-sound Tchaikovsky.

Last but not least, Kerry Biggin merits kudos as Re-Stager/Resident Director. Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is a New Adventures Production.

 I was among those Angelinos fortunate enough to discover Matthew Bourne when he made his Ahmanson debut back in ’97, and I’ve gone back to re-experience his brilliance many times since. At 22 years of fandom and counting, I declare his breathtaking Swan Lake the most magnificent Bourne of all.

Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles.
www.CenterTheatreGroup.org

–Steven Stanley
December 10, 2019
Photos: Johan Perrson

Tags: Ahmanson Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Theater Review, Matthew Bourne, New Adventures