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THE place: Oblomov, one of those cafe-bar-restaurants which specialise in post-modern, post-ironic new British food: bangers and mash, the ubiquitous salmon, roasted vegetables. The taxi driver has never heard of it, so we crawl along Great Western Road in Glasgow looking for a minimalist sign (well, it would have to be) and a huddle of bohemian types behind glass. Just as well I'm early.
Adam Cooper strides in, as tall as reputed, and looking young despite the neat little beard which clings to his chin. There are formalities, a handshake, a few mindless words to counter any awkward silence. He speaks with a London inflection, but nothing as contrived as Damon Albarn's mockney, or Nigel Kennedy's accentuated parody. Tooting Bec, he explains. Tooting Bec with money, one assumes.
If you have only seen Adam Cooper on stage, it takes a while to adjust to his human dimensions. Most of us, after all, first discovered him in Matthew Bourne's brilliant, demented, Swan Lake, which turned the swans into men and the ballet into a West End triumph two years ago. It also made something of a star of the 24- year-old Cooper, then on loan from the Royal Ballet, but now a permanent _migr_ in the prime of life and at the height of his powers.
If there is something about men in tights that is hard to take seriously, it is to Cooper's credit that his dark, brooding sexuality in Swan Lake banished any suggestion of camp and transformed him into a pin-up overnight. It also produced some startling effects. Emma Thompson, for one, turned up one night and demanded to lick his trousers. "I went down to the stage door, and she just hugged me for five minutes, she was so moved by the whole thing. It was just unbelievable."
Then there was Shirley MacLaine who went to see the show three times in Los Angeles, as did Bette Midler, and Ian McKellen who was so taken with it all that he returned for a crowd scene cameo.
Cooper ticks them off: Richard Gere, Roddy McDowell, Diana Rigg - "and who was the really great actress? Sally Fields! She was gorgeous, really nice."
Oh-oh, I'm thinking, luvvie alert, but in fact Cooper couldn't...