An Opera About Harvey Milk, Newly ‘Reimagined,’ Returns After 30 Years

Considering the nonstop inanities coming from Washington D.C., it was perhaps inevitable that over the course of its short two-week run, some news or other would elevate the opera Harvey Milk Reimagined, now playing at YBCA, into the “relevant now more than ever” stratosphere.

As if on cue, less than a week after its opening, technologically challenged Defense Secretary Pete Hedgseth learned about the ship known as the USNS Harvey Milk and declared that the very gay name of the naval ship should be changed.

Is any of this all that important? Cleve Jones, an intern and friend of Milk, said that the gay rights icon would “would shrug it off and laugh.”

And yet it underscores the obsessive fear that Milk — a brave, funny, smart and passionate crusader for gay rights — successfully placed into straight America. Harvey Milk Reimagined, a shortened version of the 1996 opera Harvey Milk now playing in a production by Opera Parallèle at YBCA in San Francisco, carries that daunting legacy on its shoulders.

I caught Harvey Milk Reimagined on a Sunday matinee, and bumped into composer Stewart Wallace in the lobby beforehand. Watching the crowd reaction on opening night, he told me in the theater lobby, was a “surreal” experience. “There are different resonances now,” he said, comparing the two versions.

Cowritten with librettist Michael Korie, Harvey Milk Reimagined is a nuanced opera befitting a complicated life. Cut down from the original three acts to two, its restaging comes during a time of despair and precariousness, when Milk’s achievements are worth celebrating and his bridge-building strategy worth studying.

Across two hours and 20 minutes, Wallace and Korie succeed in the unenviable task of curating important details from Milk’s rich life: a boyhood awakening of getting cruised in the park, a Jewish heritage inspiring his exit from Wall Street to fight for gay rights. Forty minutes in, Milk moves to the promised land of San Francisco to figure out who exactly he wants to be, like so many others before him.

As Milk, Michael Kelly is skilled and convincing, although he lacks that contagious, wild-eyed giddiness so inherent to Milk’s personality. (If Mad Men ever gets turned into an opera, he’s a shoo-in for Don Draper, though.) His pursuit of justice emanates from the stage in certain scenes, escalating alongside the rising tensions inside City Hall.

Wallace’s score is welcomingly modern-but-not-cumbersome, with copious portamentos and bent notes. (If this is meant to imply “not straight,” my hat is off.) Korie’s libretto, meanwhile, captures Milk’s humor and earnestness — and occasional discomfort. In an effective juxtaposition, Milk’s mother (Catherine Cook) recalls horrors of the holocaust, singing “they made our skin into lampshades,” while in a split scene, Milk indulges in his first late-night pleasures of the flesh.

The supporting cast includes the strong-voiced Henry Benson as Milk’s lover Scott Smith and Marnie Breckenridge as Dianne Feinstein; both play their parts perfectly. As Dan White, Christopher Oglesby is so good that one revels in the quandary of applauding for Milk’s assassin during his curtain call.

John Adams’ opera Nixon in China, which caused waves prior to the original staging of Harvey Milk, seems to have some influence in Harvey Milk Revisited. Adams-like repetition applied to archival news reports (including from KQED) is deployed effectively, and a fantastic Matt Boehler as Mayor George Moscone has the formal demeanor of James Maddalena’s Nixon.

Especially striking is the transformation of Dan White from champion of the diminishing working class to what we know today as a standard-issue conservative grievance machine, resentful and enraged by those he believes are taking away his way of life. As he sings “Whose America is this?,” one can easily picture him on a Fox News broadcast in 2025.

White’s frumpy brown suit is emblematic of the sharp costume choices by designer Alina Bokovikova. Meanwhile, choreographer Michael Mohammed delivers an electrifying reenactment of the Stonewall riot — a pivotal moment for Milk, who committed himself to the crusade for gay rights in its aftermath (and rallied the people of San Francisco after an incident of brutal gay bashing, chillingly depicted on stage, to join him).

We all know how the story ends. It is not easy to watch. But just as renaming a boat can’t erase Milk’s legacy, his assassination cannot and will not thwart his life’s work, retold in movies, documentaries, postage stamps, airport terminals and TikToks to inspire generations to come. Harvey Milk Revisited is a more than worthy addition.

‘Harvey Milk Revisited’ runs through Saturday, June 7, at YBCA in San Francisco. Details here.