New York City Center, Sadler’s Wells and Back Row Productions
Present A New Adventures Production
MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE
THE TONY AWARD® WINNING PRODUCTION
RETURNS TO NEW YORK
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT OCTOBER 13 – NOVEMBER 7, 2010
AT NEW YORK CITY CENTER
Directed and Choreographed by Matthew Bourne
“Fourteen years after its premiere, the show still packs a thrilling punch.”
Daily Mail (London, 2009)
MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE, the triumphant modern re-interpretation of the legendary ballet, turned tradition upside down and took both the theater and dance worlds by storm when it arrived on Broadway in 1998 and went on to win three Tony Awards® and five Drama Desk Awards.
Produced by New York City Center, Sadler’s Wells Theater London and Back Row Productions, the groundbreaking and multi-award-winning international hit production will return to New York for a strictly limited run October 13 – November 7, 2010 at New York City Center (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues).
Tickets for MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE go on sale on Monday, June 7th at the New York City Center Box Office, through CityTix at 212-581-1212, or online at www.NYCityCenter.org. Tickets are $110 (Orchestra and Grand Tier); $85 (Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine); $50 (Mid-Mezzanine and Rear Mezzanine) and $25 (Orchestra and Rear Mezzanine).
Matthew Bourne blends dance, humor and spectacle with extravagant, award-winning set and costume designs by Lez Brotherston and lighting design by Rick Fisher, to create a provocative and powerful Swan Lake for our times. Now firmly crowned as a modern-day classic, this iconic production is perhaps best known for replacing the traditional female corps de ballet with a menacing male ensemble.
Collecting over 30 international theater awards, MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE has been acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage. It has become the longest running ballet in the West End and on Broadway and enjoyed four hugely successful tours in the UK and thrilled audiences all over the world.
Tony Award® winning creator and New Adventures artistic director Matthew Bourne said: "Can it really be over a decade ago that my production of Swan Lake was on Broadway? A memorable experience that culminated in our winning three Tony Awards®. An incredible journey for a piece that started out as a government subsidized project that was seen as, at best, a creative gamble and, at worst, an outrageous folly! Of course, this was before people had seen the power and the majesty of our now famous male swans. I am happy to say that that journey has since continued and Swan Lake has been seen all over the world, inspiring young (particularly male) dancers and creating an unprecedented new audience for dance.
I remember at the Tony Awards®, when I won my second award of the evening for Best Director of a Musical, looking down at the award and saying incredulously ‘Best Director of a Musical that isn't a musical?’ I was of course alluding to the fact that the show was deemed ineligible for Best Musical. What I forgot to say at the time was that although Swan Lake is probably not a musical, it is certainly musical theater, and this has been borne out over the years with its incredible cross-over popularity. I am particularly delighted to be returning to New York with my own New Adventures company, which features a cast of homegrown stars who have worked in many of my productions over the last decade.
I have never stopped working on Swan Lake. It has never become frozen as a show but has, I believe, gotten richer and more heartfelt. In fact, this current production features, in my opinion, the finest company that has ever performed the piece. I am thrilled to be co-presented at New York's famed City Center by my producers: Back Row Productions, who have produced Swan Lake all over the world since 2005; London’s legendary dance house, Sadler’s Wells; and New York City Center, one of New York’s leading presenters and producers of both dance and musical theater. I am truly excited at the prospect of Swan Lake’s return to New York and performing, once again, to the best audiences in the world."
MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE stars a mix of established New Adventures performers and newcomers. Richard Winsor and Jonathan Ollivier return to the coveted role of “The Swan” following their 2009 debuts.
Richard Winsor is one of New Adventures’ leading performers, having created the title roles in both Edward Scissorhands (2005) and Dorian Gray (2008). He was also in the original cast of Bourne’s Play Without Words (2002) and was seen as “Angelo” in The Car Man and the title role in Nutcracker!. He recently starred in his first major film, Street Dance, the first British movie to be shot in 3D.
After graduating from The Rambert School in 1996, Jonathan Ollivier joined The Cape Town City Ballet Company and became a principal before returning to England in 1999 to join Northern Ballet. Here he created many leading roles, most notably “Stanley Kowalski” in Didy Veldman’s contemporary ballet of A Streetcar Named Desire and “Heathcliffe” in David Nixon’s Wuthering Heights. Ollivier joined the Alberta Ballet Company as a principal dancer in 2007 and returned to the UK to pursue a freelance career in 2009.
The pivotal role of “The Prince” will be performed by Dominic North, a veteran New Adventures company member who has also played the title role in Edward Scissorhands for which he was nominated for Best Male Dancer at the 2010 National Dance Awards. Simon Williams will also return to the production to recreate the role. A Royal Ballet School graduate and former member of the English National Ballet, he has performed with New Adventures in Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! and also appeared in Billy Elliot in the West End and as the leading male dancer in the Michael Clark Dance Company.
Returning to the role of “The Queen” will be American dancer and original Broadway cast member Nina Goldman, who has performed in various roles within the production, including “The Girlfriend.” Nina also performed in The Car Man and enjoyed great success as “Joyce Monroe” in Edward Scissorhands. Sharing the roles of both “The Queen” and “The Girlfriend” will be veteran New Adventures company member Madelaine Brennan, who studied with The Royal Ballet and has appeared in Trevor Nunn’s productions of Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady at The Royal National Theatre, and most recently performed in Cabaret on the West End.
“The Girlfriend” will also be played by New Adventures veteran Shelby Williams, who has appeared in the original 2005 cast of Edward Scissorhands, The Car Man, Highland Fling and Nutcracker!
The role of the “The Private Secretary” will be shared by New Adventures resident director Steve Kirkham and company member Ashley Bain. Kirkham returns to Swan Lake after being in the original cast as a “Cygnet.” He was in the original cast of the multi-award-winning Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Nutcracker! Bain has appeared with New Adventures in Nutcracker!, the Swan Lake 10th Anniversary world tour and Dorian Gray, in which he created the role of “Edward Black.”
The complete company of MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE will be announced shortly.
NEW ADVENTURES Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures is the UK’s premier contemporary dance/theater touring company. Its repertory includes some of the most successful dance productions of the last two decades. The company was launched in 2002 to create and perform both large - and small-scale work by Matthew Bourne. Since its launch it has built an enviable repertoire of exciting new work (Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Dorian Gray) and new productions of favorite works from the repertory of Matthew Bourne’s former company, Adventures In Motion Pictures (Nutcracker!, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Highland Fling and The Car Man). New Adventures is committed to reviving these popular works on a regular basis, along with the creation of new work. As well as being a resident company at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, New Adventures is also a touring company. It has become Britains' biggest dance export with regular seasons throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Both at home and internationally, it annually gives more performances than any other UK dance company.
NEW YORK CITY CENTER has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan’s first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as “one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York.” Dance has been integral to the theater’s mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance festival and a partnership with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center’s identity.
SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE LONDON is the UK’s leading venue for dance, presenting the widest forms of world-class international and UK dance to the widest possible audiences. A well established producing house under the artistic directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theater’s acclaimed program spans cutting edge contemporary works by artists such as William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter and Wayne McGregor, sell-out runs from Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, hugely successful tango, street dance and flamenco shows, international companies including American Ballet Theater and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and award-winning Sadler’s Wells Productions on an international scale including Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant’s PUSH and groundbreaking cross-art form collaborations such as zero degrees and Sutra. An associate artist at Sadler’s Wells, Matthew Bourne’s iconic Swan Lake premiered at the theater 15 years ago. Since then he has presented a host of acclaimed works at Sadler’s Wells including Nutcracker!, The Car Man and Edward Scissorhands. His company, New Adventures, has been a Sadler’s Wells resident company since 2006.
BACK ROW PRODUCTIONS LTD. The Managing Directors of Back Row Productions are Liz Koops and Garry McQuinn. Back Row has successfully developed or presented innovative productions throughout the world including Tap Dogs (in 37 countries and over 320 cities), Slava’s Snowshow, Gumboots, Wadaiko Ichiro, Shaolin Monks, Bounce and Circus Oz. Back Row's international reputation was consolidated through booking and/or producing seasons of Jerry Seinfeld, An Inspector Calls, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Mum's The Word, Fosse, Cats, Chicago, Starlight Express, Grease, Miss Saigon, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Back Row Productions is presently producing Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake internationally, Through A Glass Darkly with the prestigious Almeida Theatre, a reinvented production of Tap Dogs in London, Europe and Asia, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical, running at the Palace Theatre in London and opening in Toronto later this year and Broadway early in 2011.
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