WATCH: The 'Fellow Travelers' opera is just as hot as the TV show - Queerty

"Well before it was an acclaimed Showtime miniseries that featured Jonathan Bailey putting Matt Bomer's foot in his mouth, Fellow Travelers was a 2007 historical fiction novel from author Thomas Mallon, and then turned into an opera by composer Gregory Spears & librettist Greg Pierce, which first premiered in 2016 at the Cincinnati Opera."

"But Mallon's original novel largely keeps the narrative in the '50s, when decorated war hero & State Department official Hawk first meets Tim in Washington, D.C., fresh out of college, as the two fall in love right under the nose of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his fear-mongering anti-communism crusade."

"The opera version of Fellow Travelers similarly contains itself to that era, though it feels no less epic as it explores the disparity between the complete liberation these two men feel in their intimate moments together versus the utter paranoia of moving through a world looking to persecute those perceived to stray from t"

Fellow Travelers has evolved from a 2007 historical fiction novel by Thomas Mallon into both an acclaimed Showtime miniseries and an opera production. The opera, composed by Gregory Spears with libretto by Greg Pierce, premiered in 2016 at Cincinnati Opera. While the TV adaptation spans decades following the romance between Hawk Fuller and Timothy Laughlin from the Lavender Scare through the AIDS crisis, the original novel and opera version focus primarily on the 1950s. The story centers on a secret romance between a decorated war hero and State Department official and a young college graduate in Washington, D.C., set against the backdrop of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade and the era's persecution of those perceived as deviating from societal norms.

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