Harvey Milk Reimagined

Harvey Milk is inspired by the life and martyrdom of San Francisco's first openly gay elected public official. Milk had a foot in two separate ghettos: one gay, one Jewish. He was a boy in Long Island at the time of the liberation of the concentration camps in Europe at the end of World War II. Like many Jews of his generation, he clearly saw that remaining silent was no longer a moral option. His sense of moral outrage and courage stems from this time. When he began to transfer these lessons to himself as a gay man, he transformed himself from a closeted Wall Street businessman into an outspoken leader of the gay community.

For this production, Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie have radically reimagined the score with an emphasis on its mythic elements as a celebration of Harvey Milk’s life. This new Harvey Milk is streamlined. It’s taut and visceral. Appropriately, this premiere coincides with Harvey Milk’s 90th Birthday and is proudly part of a city-wide celebration.