Elevator Thoughts (aka Tweet): Happy opening night to Fellow Travelers by Seattle Opera accompanied by Seattle Symphony. Refreshing to see a gay romantic love story at the center of the stage. Narratives like this are still rarer than they should be. Starring Jarrett Ott / Joseph Lattanzi and Colin Aikins / Andy Acosta.
See it if you’re okay modern English operas.
Was This the First Time I Attended a Production of this Show? Yes
Would I See It Again 3 Years from Now? No, but I’d love to see this turned into a musical.
Mainstream Appeal: Medium
If A Random Stranger Asked What Show They Should See This Weekend, Would I Mention This Production? Yes
My Synopsis (No Spoilers): Two closeted men, separated by age but bound by desire, find each other in conservative 1950s Washington, DC, where McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare made their very existence a liability.
Synopsis from the Licensor or Theatre Company: A steamy romance complicates everything for recent college graduate Timothy Laughlin, who has arrived in 1950s Washington, D.C., ready to join the fight against Communism. His chance encounter with the handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, results in Tim’s first job and his first romantic relationship with a man. Tim struggles to reconcile his political, personal, and religious beliefs with the passion he and Hawkins share—all under the watchful eye of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare. Director Kevin Newbury calls this powerful piece of historical fiction “first and foremost a really beautiful love story,” saying, “it’s more important than ever for me to share this gay love story and showcase intimacy between men on stage… so people can see themselves represented” and “shed light on our shared LGBQT+ history.”
Type: Opera
World Premiere: No
Several or Few Scenes: Several
Several or Few Settings/Locations: Several
Static (Stationary) or Dynamic Set: Dynamic
Prior Exposure/Knowledge Required: You need to be at least remotely familiar with McCarthyism and the red/lavender scare.
Defined Plot/Storyline: Yes
Live Band/Orchestra: Yes
Union Actor(s): Yes, the principal roles
Total Actor(s): 9
Perceived Pace of the Show: Medium speed
Was there an intermission? Yes
Length (Including Any Intermission): 2.5 hours
Other Rave(s)
- Gay Narrative: In the era of the viral Heated Rivalry trend, it was refreshing to see a gay romantic love story as the focus of the narrative. I’d say this was the best opera I’ve seen so far. But that’s mostly because of the personal relatability … not to mention my admittedly limited opera-going experience. For an industry so famously filled with gay creatives, narratives like this remain rarer than they should be.
The opening cat-and-mouse cruising scene in the park was cute and endearing. Its bookend reprise at the show’s close gave the evening a satisfying symmetry. The dance of attraction and longing woven throughout the show was palpable and – dare I say – hot. The nude (butt not crotch) love scenes were tasteful, but it clearly (and effectively) pandered to the audience demographic. A female patron near me noted that there were far more men in attendance at the opera than usual. Sex sells y’all … especially with us gays.
My one reservation with this rave is that the narrative (like Heated Rivalry) was still rooted in closeted shame. That story is real and worth telling, but I’m hungry for something more modern. Can there be a mainstream opera/musical/play as a simple gay romantic comedy, where being queer is unremarkable? We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer.
Rant(s)
- Understandability:
While microphone amplification in opera would be sacrilegious to traditionalists, it deserves an exception for modern productions sung in English. When an audience cannot understand the words being sung, something crucial has been lost. With a foreign-language opera, there is an expectation that the listener surrenders to the music’s emotional current rather than its enunciation or literal meaning. But a USA audience watching an English-language opera expects to audibly understand the lyrics.
The operatic voice, magnificent as it is, works against intelligibility in ways that are easy to overlook. Vibrato blurs consonants. The elevated, resonant tone that carries so beautifully in the upper registers softens the edges of words into impressionism. Closed captions compensate for this, but there were several moments in Fellow Travelers when the captions dropped out precisely when the singing was least decipherable. In fact, the stranger seated beside me shared an unprompted remark that the production needed microphones. When an audience member volunteers that observation to a stranger, it’s worth taking seriously.
I understand that microphone amplification remains a controversial subject in opera circles. But in the interest of accessibility, audiences today (particularly younger ones) are accustomed to sound that is engineered to reach them clearly. There is no virtue in purity of form if the meaning it’s meant to carry never arrives.
Other Musing(s) and Observation(s)
- Stage Size: McCaw Hall’s expansive stage felt slightly oversized for the scenic design by Vita Tzykun. Though I’ll take that over the alternative (a stage too small). If anything, the scale pushed the designers toward an solution in one scene where they concentrated the snow effect into a tight fifth of the stage, which turned a potential limitation into something visually interesting.
- Betrayal: The reason behind the betrayal in the second act didn’t make sense and seemed a bit over reactive for the stakes. Its as if simpler, less drastic pragmatic resolutions were deliberately ignored to force a dramatic turn. But then, sensibility rarely makes for good storytelling.
Theatre Company: Seattle Opera
Venue: McCaw Hall
Venue Physical Address: 321 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109
Price Range: $39 to $208
Ticket Affordability Options: Check out the Seattle Opera “Ways to Save” pages
Dates: February 21 to March 1, 2026
Seating: Assigned Seats
Parking: There are paid lots and paid street parking. I usually park on Mercer to the West of 1st Ave. There’s usually also plentiful street parking around Safeway. If there’s an event in Seattle Center or Climate Pledge Arena, street parking is usually limited and much more expensive.
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Photos: See production photos below by Sunny Martini and David Jaewon Oh.
Cast and Production Team: See after photos below.
