Berkshire on Stage

Fellow Travelers takes its place on Glimmerglass Festival’s schedule as the “modern masterpiece” as Artistic and General Director Rob Ainsley described it in his curtain speech on Saturday night. It is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a multi-city tour that has a continuing urgency. The New York Times reported on 8/3 on trans troops being expelled from the military for their sexual identity.

The opera with music by Gregory Spears and a libretto by Greg Pierce is based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 historical novel, a specialty of Mallon’s, which is set in 1953 Washington, D.C. under the grip of the Red Scare. State Department official Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller meets young Fordham grad Timothy Laughlin in the park, helps him get a speechwriter’s job for a right wing senator and the two begin a secret romantic relationship.

The two have an incredibly difficult time navigating their courtship as they keep it hidden from co-workers, Tim tries to reconcile it with his faith and Hawk pushes his sexual adventurousness.

Hawk is called in for interrogation due to suspicions that he is homosexual. He is forced to go through a humiliating series of tests: walk like what you think a normal person would walk like and read a passage from “Of Human Bondage” which describes a man immersing himself in a closet of women’s dresses. 

Timothy reacts badly when Hawk proposes opening their relationship to a third man, a dirty blonde clerk from the office. The naive Tim who is in his first relationship is crushed by the distance between them and enrolls in the military. After two years overseas, Tim returns to find Hawk married to a woman. Hawk sets Tim up in a house to resume their affair. Tim asks Hawk for a recommendation to head up the Hungarian Refugee Relief Effort. Hawk betrays him instead, naming him as a homosexual and removing him from his newly settled, suburban life.

The opening scene in the park is precisely calibrated by director Kevin Newbury with insistent piano notes mapping out Hawk’s footsteps behind Tim sitting on the bench drinking milk. Hawk crosses downstage and there’s a glance between the two men that lasts a second too long…but it breaks and Hawk walks upstage. He stand behind the bench, looks again and Tim looks up, their eyes hold each other and the full orchestra conducted by Kelly Kuo breaks the insistent tapping with melodic sweep. It’s a thrilling opening for this romance that must be hidden.

Colin Aikins as Tim is terrific earning our love and urge to protect him from the start. From the lovers first evening tryst in his cheap apartment, Tim heads repentantly to church and asks “How many sins did I commit last night?” He is open, genuine and lovely. This man is eminently deserving to love and be loved. It is his downfall which is the opera’s broken heart.

The more worldly Joseph Lattanzi as Hawk is sympathetic as well, especially when you see him put through his paces and forced to testify to a lie detector about his sexuality. Lattanzi is so strong and assured, we are not surprised that he walks through this crucible unharmed. His final act of betrayal is painful, we are expecting names to be named but not in this manner.

The supporting cast is led by Keely Futterer as Mary, an office mate who becomes a great friend of Tim’s. She has an exquisite voice and brightly pierces the glum skulduggery whenever she is onstage. The love scenes between the men with imaginings of Bermuda are bright but the world of this opera can feel dark, grubby and sordid. That’s what you get when you have Senator Joseph McCarthy (Luke Harnish) as a character.

The set design by Vita Tsukuba, lighting by Thomas C. Hase works exceptionally well with moveable marble walls that close in, rolling set pieces that can create an office with filing cabinets, a warm kitchen or flipped around, they create a brick wall penning the characters in like a prison. 

The final image is a floor to ceiling tribute with dozens and dozens of photos from The Lavender Names Project of LGBTQ+ individuals “who were systematically discriminated against and fired by federal and local governments in the United States, including the military, from the ‘Lavender Scare’ in the 1950’s to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in the 1990s, to today.” The photo wall could be updated on a daily basis.

Fellow Travelers is a beautiful, seductive and heartbreaking tragic story of a man and a love awakened and cruelly discarded, a victim of his country and his lover’s betrayal and broken promises.

The Glimmerglass Festival presents Fellow Travelers, Music by Gregory Spears, Libretto by Greg Pierce, Based on the book by Thomas Mallon, directed by Kevin Newbury, from July 18-August 26, 2026, in the Alice Busch Opera Theaterin Cooperstown, NY. CAST: Joseph Lattanzi as Hawkins Fuller, Colin Aikins as Timothy Laughlin, Keely Futterer as Mary Johnson, Kaileigh Riess as Miss Lightfoot, Luke Harnish as Senator Joseph McCarthy/Estonian Frank/Interrogator, Laura Santamaria-Mendez as Lucy, Erik Nordstrom as Tommy McIntyre, Yichen Xue as Senator Charles Potter/General Arlie/Bartender, Jose Olivares as Senator Potter’s Assistant/Bookseller/Party Guest/Technician/French Priest. CREATIVE TEAM: Conductor Kelly Kuo; Assistant Director Kevin Clemons; Principal Coach Christopher Devlin; 2nd Pianist/Coach Maeve Berry; Diction Coach Lynn Baker; Projected Titles Kelley Rourke; Assistant Conductor Luke Poeppel; Associate Director & Intimacy Director Sara E. Widzer; Set Designer Vita Tzykun; Costume Designer Devario D. Simmons; Lighting Designer Thomas C. Hase; Hair & Makeup Designer Tom Watson; Stage Manager Dustin Z West. https://glimmerglass.org/events/fellow-travelers/

Presented in English with English projected titles
Approx. Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes (including a 25-minute intermission)